Normal Life
by tilante
Summary: Can Alex and Justin manage without their powers, and with Alex pregnant?  Can they ever have a normal life?    Part of the "Alex Gets Punished" series.  Follows "Fun and Games".  See my author page for the full list of stories.
1. Chapter 1

Alex Russo sighed as she piled clothes into the washer in the apartment complex laundromat. _This was a lot easier when I could just zap clothes clean._ Carefully, she added the detergent, then fabric softener, pouring it into the little ball that was supposed to release it at the right time and sealing it with meticulous care. _No bleach for these_, she remembered, her mouth twisting a little sourly at the thought of the dress she'd ruined right after they'd moved. She'd also managed to make some of Justin's white socks pink, which once upon a time would have been cause for her to laugh for weeks.

But these days, things were different. _Life isn't as fun without magic. _ She put quarters into the slots on the washer, her mouth twisting in a grimace as she did (_Wish we had hookups. This is getting expensive_), then pushed the slider in, picked up the basket, and looked at her watch as she walked out. 3:21. She smiled a little at that; Justin should be home at six, and then things would be much better. The time without him was always the worst part of the day, and she couldn't just sleep most of it away, the way she used to.

_And with Mom, Dad, and Lexie coming to visit next week, I really need to get some things done. _ Alex frowned and thought as she crossed the parking lot, then went up the stairs to their apartment, unlocked the door, and went in. She set the basket by the door, since she'd just have to get it out of the closet again in an hour if she didn't, went into the second bedroom that was currently her studio/office, and went to her desk - actually a drafting table that Justin had managed to get cheap from a place that was upgrading their equipment - and set back to sketching.

This wasn't what she'd expected either. She still loved the actual work, but working as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer involved a lot of things besides the actual art. Justin was happy to help out with the bookkeeping parts of it, but the self-promotion parts and the meetings with clients fell to Alex. She'd always had a way with people, so that wasn't the problem - really, the worst part was getting used to not being able to teleport. Actually having to drive places was a foreign enough concept for a Manhattan native in the first place. She'd never been good at being on time to things, and -

Alex's phone buzzed, and she sighed, picked it up, then smiled as she saw it wasn't a reminder that she had to go to some appointment, but was Miranda calling. She thumbed it onto speaker and kept sketching, quickly outlining muscled arms. Romance novel covers weren't challenging work, but someone had to paint them, and it might as well be her.

"Hey," she said into the air. "How are you?"

"Horrible, like always. You?" A stranger would have thought Miranda was joking from the cheerful tone, but Alex knew she only talked with that forced cheer when she was trying not to cry.

_Me? Bored. Worried about next week. Wondering if I'm ever going to hear from Max again. Wondering when I'm going to stop having morning sickness. _ Aloud, she said, "Oh, I'm okay. What happened?"

"I just came home twenty minutes ago and found Jack in bed with some little blonde," Miranda let out. "One of his students, I think. Well, they weren't actually _in_ bed, but you know what I mean."

Alex shook her head and rolled her eyes, even as she sympathetically said, "I'm sorry. Did you throw his ass out?"

"Kind of. I told him I'd be back in an hour, and he'd better have his stuff out by then, or I'd be calling the cops. I feel like _such _an idiot, though. It's only been three damn weeks since I caught him before." There was a quick pause, in which Alex knew Miranda was shaking her head quickly, probably bowing her head down and palming her forehead with it. "I sure can pick 'em, can't I?" she said, and the end was almost a sob.

"Hey, hey - it's not like you make these guys be jerks. But yeah, I do wish you could find a real nice guy. You deserve one." _Hell, if I still had magic, I'd clone Justin for her. He'd treat her right. _ Alex smiled, as she usually did when she thought about Justin. _ I wonder what he's doing right now_, she thought as she continued to console Miranda.

* * *

At that moment, Justin sat in the cramped office he shared on a rotating basis with two other teaching assistants and took a deep breath as he looked at the diagram he'd drawn. The main part was two concentric circles, drawn with a charcoal pencil he'd borrowed from Alex's supplies, the space between the circles filled with words in a mixture of Latin, Greek, and what he believed to be debased Hebrew. Two more words were in the center, seeming nonsense.

After a moment, Justin stood and crossed to the door, double-checked that it was locked and firmly closed. Returning to the paper, he quirked his mouth to the side and gave a single, decisive nod, then picked up the knife and gritted his teeth as he pushed the tip a couple of millimeters into the flesh at the base of his thumb. Setting the knife aside, he squeezed the cut with the thumb and forefinger of his other hand, forcing a few drops of his blood onto the herbs in their small ceramic bowl.

_It's weird that I had a bowl here already that would work, and the lighter. I guess I've been preparing for this unconsciously all along._ He didn't know why it had taken him this long to actually try the ritual - he'd been obsessed with it off and on since the night after the competition, since he'd first wondered about whether what that other Justin he'd briefly been believed about knowing another way to empower a born wizard was true. He'd even decided he was going to do it a few times, but somehow never actually had.

_Well, now I'll find out._ He wasn't sure whether he wanted it to be true or not. Being able to have access to magic again could be both a blessing and curse... but it was more likely to be a curse. _Especially if the Council should find out somehow. _ Still, it wasn't in Justin's nature to be able to sit still and not find out if something like this was true.

He intoned the words of the ritual, lit the herbs with his blood at the correct point, stared in stunned amazement as the spell worked, as the smoke formed itself into what the other Justin had believed would appear. The rest was mercifully brief, and a few minutes later, Justin was testing the limits on his new, temporary magic, until it was nearly time for it to run out.

_It's too early,_ he thought then. He'd spoken to Professor Crumbs just last week, about that other matter, and until it was cleared up, there was still a chance that the Council might decide to check up on Alex and him. _And as a mortal, I won't know if they try to read my mind. It'd be bad enough if I thought about this and they did... but if they know that I've actually _done_ it, they'd kill me. They'd kill Alex, if they thought she had anything to do with it. It's safest if I don't even let myself remember it._

Quickly, he cleaned up the evidence of what he'd done, tore up the diagram and took it outside, deposited the scraps into the hallway trash can, where he wouldn't see them. Then, for the fourth time in two months, Justin Russo put his hand to his face, said, "_Cerebellum erasus_" - and promptly forgot the last forty-five minutes.

* * *

At four o'clock, Justin opened his door for his office hours. Out in the waiting area shared by 'his' office and three others, a blonde girl with a heart-shaped face lifted her head from her book and smiled at him. Justin smiled back, even as he cringed a little inside. Marie was a nice girl, but she kept coming to his office with, well, the dumbest questions. From her grades, she should have been able to figure things out on her own, and Justin had no idea why she didn't. Still, she was a nice enough girl, and she definitely wasn't hard to look at - quite the opposite, in fact.

So he gestured to her to come in and went to sit down at his desk, wondering what she was going to ask this time. "Thank you, Mr. Russo," she said with a bright smile as she came in, carrying her backpack in one hand.

"It's what my office hours are for," he replied with just the barest trace of irony in his tone. Marie sat down in the chair by his desk and set her backpack in her lap, unzipped it quickly, looking down into it as she got out the book for his class.

Justin's eyes flicked up and down over the girl as she was looking down. _Nice_, a part of his mind said. _And the way she keeps coming around, she's obviously into me. I should - no. _ He closed his eyes and turned, angling his head a little away as he looked at the screen. _These aren't your thoughts. Remember that. You aren't that Justin. You don't do things like that._

"Mister Russo?" He looked back to Marie, and she smiled again, held the book out toward him. "It's question twenty here. I'm not really understanding it." He took the book from her, carefully ignoring how she brushed her fingers against his, and did his best to focus on the problem, not on Marie.

She had another question after that one, about the programming portion of the assignment, which allowed her to move behind his chair and lean over him as she asked questions and pointed at the screen. Justin found it considerably harder to ignore her breasts next to his face as she leaned over, and was happy for the interruption when his phone rang.

"Just a second." Justin picked up the phone and looked, then smiled. "It's my wife. I need to take this," he said to Marie, then thumbed the button. "Hi. How's your day going?"

"Justin, I need you to come home," Alex said, and Justin sat up a little straighter.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'm not hurt or anything, but I'm not okay." Justin frowned at the slightly panicky tone of Alex's voice, opened his mouth to ask a question. "Just please, come home. Please?"

"Sure," he replied, trying for a soothing tone. Alex had mellowed some over the years, but 'please' still wasn't something that she said often. "I'll be there as fast as I can. Just hang on, okay? I'll call you back in just a few minutes."

"Okay. Hurry."

"I will. I love you." Justin blew a kiss into the phone, then hung up. "I'm sorry," he said to Marie, starting his computer shutting down, then standing and hurriedly putting things into his briefcase. "I've got to go. We'll finish this later."

"But… it's due Friday, and it's Wednesday right now…." Marie looked stricken, and Justin said, "Well, I have to be on campus tomorrow for my own classes. We could -"

"Could you meet me at noon? At the student union? Thursdays are kind of crowded for me, but I can print out the program and bring it…."

"Sure." Justin nodded quickly, only half paying attention to what he was agreeing to. "Noon, student union. Got it. I'll see you then. Thanks, and bye." He slipped out past her, walking quickly to the side door of the building, then broke into a jog once he was outside, heading for where he'd parked.


	2. Chapter 2

At the first stop light after getting off campus, Justin quickly called Alex's cell and put his phone on speaker, then set it in the car's cup holder. "Hey. I'm on my way home," he said, worry evident in his voice. "Now, what's wrong?"

"Someone broke into the apartment," Alex replied. "I'd just gone to get the laundry, and I came back, and the door was open and the lock broken. The TV's gone, and your computer, and the DVD player, and -"

"Are you okay?" Justin asked, speaking a little loudly, since Alex was still going.

"Yeah," she said, then repeated a moment later, "Yeah. I'm a little scared though. What if they come back? They broke the lock, and -"

"_Alex._" Justin cut her off again, kept talking as he made a turn. "Don't stay there. Go to the complex office and tell them what happened."

"But -"

"No 'but's. There's only two things in that apartment that are important - you and the baby. They can take everything else if they want, but I don't want you getting hurt. Go to the office _now_, and stay on the phone with me until you get there."

"Okay," she said, and Justin sighed a little in relief as he heard her open the door, then shut it behind her and start down the stairs at the front of their apartment.

"Keep talking so I know you're okay." Justin paused, frowning a little. _She sounds really upset. Get her to talk about something else._ "How else has your day been? Did you get any work done on those cover sketches?"

"Yeah, they're still there. I guess they're not anything they'd want. I hope they're not coming back." She paused half a second, and her tone was apologetic when she resumed. "I'm sorry I interrupted your office hours."

"Don't be silly." Justin rolled his eyes and shook his head. "If you need me, I come home. Whatever you need me for. You know that. And it's not like you planned to have someone break into the apartment to get me to come home. I love you. You and the baby come before everything else."

He could hear the smile in Alex's voice as she said, "Okay. Oh, that reminds me - Miranda called. Jack cheated on her again, so she kicked him out."

The sudden veer in the conversation threw Justin for a moment, and he blinked, wondering what in what he'd said made her think of that. _Doesn't matter. It's got her off thinking about the break-in. _"Good. She should've done it the first time. She doesn't deserve to be treated like that."

"Yeah." Alex chuckled, and Justin smiled to hear that. "I was actually wishing I could clone you and send her the clone. She deserves a good guy for a change."

_Trust Alex to still think of magic as the first solution to any problem. _"Well, there's just one me, and I'm happy that way." He grinned a little, said, "If she were gay we could fix her up with Lexie, though."

"I don't think she'd be Lexie's type," Alex replied, and Justin had to raise his eyebrows at that.

"Yeah? So what _is_ Lexie's type?"

"Ask her that yourself. I'm just guessing anyway - we've never really talked about it. But if I were into girls, I don't think I'd be into Miranda. It'd be too much like dating myself."

There was a pause and then both of them said, "Well, Lexie _does_ -" and then broke off and laughed together. "Okay, I'm just outside the office," Alex said then.

"All right. Go in and tell them what happened. They should call the security guard. I'll look for you at the office first, then go to the apartment if you're not there. I should be there in about ten or fifteen minutes now. Okay?"

"Yeah. I'll see you then. I love you."

"I love you too," Justin replied. "See you in a few minutes." He let her hang up, and then took a deep breath and let it out, already thinking. _Hope they didn't take the backup drive along with the computer. Although I've got copies of the most important stuff on the laptop. And we'll need to get a new lock. I'll talk to Mrs. Ling - _that was the apartment manager - _about getting a deadbolt. Wonder why they picked us..._

It actually turned out to be sixteen minutes before Justin got there. He parked by the office and half-ran to it, leaving his briefcase in the car, throwing a blanket over it so it wouldn't be visible. Breaking into a jog, he went to the apartment office, threw open the door and looked inside. Alex and Mrs. Ling both looked up, and then Alex and Justin both moved toward each other, meeting in a hug halfway. His arms tight around Alex, Justin kissed her on the temple. "Hi," she said. "The security guy's gone to check on the apartment. And we called the police too."

"Johnny's going to fix your door frame and change out your lock as soon as he's done with the sink he's working on in 208," Mrs. Ling said. She paused a moment, giving Justin a speculative look, then asked, "You have insurance, yes?"

"Yes," Justin said, nodding as he let go of Alex. She stayed by him, holding his hand. "But I'd appreciate it if you could give us a deadbolt for our new lock."

She nodded back to him. "It will be. Most of them already are - we've been changing locks when there are vacancies. Yours got missed somehow - I'm not sure how."

By the time the police had arrived, checked things over, taken their report, and given them a copy, it was getting close to eight. By then, Johnny had fixed their door frame as well, and given them the keys for their new lock. They went out to eat, partly because Alex was feeling very hungry by then, and partly just to be out of there for a while.

Alex picked at the cheese sticks they'd ordered for an appetizer and fiddled with the straw of her drink until Justin had to simply come out and ask her, "Okay. I know that look, Alex. What are you thinking about?"

"I'm just -" She shook her head, started again. "I felt so _helpless_. Before, if I'd come back and found someone there, I could've frozen them, or turned them into mice, or wrapped them up in ropes. But now I can't do _anything._"

Justin pulled her against himself for a moment, took one of her hands in his free one. "I know. The whole way home, I was wishing I could still teleport. We'll get a security system. And we'll get you some pepper spray or something."

"I _hate_ not having magic," Alex said, shaking her head. "Oh, and that reminds me - we need to get a stepladder." She rolled her eyes. "I discovered this morning that I can't reach anything on the shelves in the closet. And I can't levitate or float them down, so..."

"Stepladder, check. We'll get that too." For a moment, Justin looked at Alex, shaking his head inwardly at her frustrated and slightly sad expression. Letting out a breath, he leaned and kissed her on the ear.

She shook it off, still looking annoyed, then said, "Sorry. I know you're trying to make me feel better. It's just -" Stopping, Alex shook her head again, then rested her forehead on her hands.

Shifting, Justin put his hands on her shoulders and started to knead the muscles there. "It's okay. We'll get used to it eventually."

"It's not just the magic. It's everything - that, and the move, and Max not talking to us, and Mom and Dad visiting next week, and the morning sickness..." She stopped speaking there, but went on in her head, thinking, _And I don't know if I'm ready to be a mom. I don't feel like _I'm_ an adult yet. _Alex lifted her head back up and closed her eyes as Justin's hands moved up to her neck and he began to massage there with his fingertips.

"It'll get better," Justin said, trying to sound reassuring even as he frowned, worrying about her. "We're done with the moving now, and you should stop having morning sickness any time now. This is... what, fourteen weeks you're at, now?"

"Yeah." Alex nodded as Justin's hands moved back to her shoulders. "I think it is getting a little better. And my breasts aren't feeling sore right now."

"Good." He leaned forward and kissed her on the back of the neck, brushing her hair aside to do so, then put his arms around her and squeezed for a moment. As he did, Justin looked around to make sure no one was looking, then let one hand slip to her breast and squeezed it slightly.

"As soon as I said that, I knew you were going to grope me. Perv." Alex said it happily, though, and pushed back against Justin for a moment, leaned her head back and turned to kiss him on the cheek.

Justin gave an apologetic smile and shrugged. "Well, you know - with them getting bigger, I've been kind of wanting to..."

"Yeah, I know. I keep having to take your hands off of them at night, remember?" She gave him a little grin, said, "You can play with them tonight. Right now, though..." She nodded and looked ahead of them, and Justin looked that way as well, then let go of Alex and moved over a little as he saw their server approaching with dinner.

Alex immediately started stealing Justin's fries, but he pretended not to notice, as always. Instead, he asked her, "Oh... has Mom or Dad called about next week?"

"No. You know them, though - they're not good about actually planning trips." She paused, took another of his fries and ate it, then grinned. "Remember the Grand Canyon trip?"

"When Dad hadn't made any reservations, and they could only get one hotel room?" He grinned back, shaking his head a little. "I'm still not sure how you managed to convince them to let the two of us sleep out in the tent together."

She shrugged. "I just appealed to Dad's cheapskate nature. That was the best part of that whole trip, though."

"Yeah." Justin kissed Alex on the cheek quickly. "We had fun keeping warm." He paused, then frowned. "You don't think Dad would -"

"Have not made reservations yet? I'm sure he hasn't."

Grimacing, Justin got out his cell phone. "I'd better call them, before we wind up with them having to sleep in the living room... no, it's eleven-thirty there now. I'll call them tomorrow."

"Lexie'll still be up. Call her, and she can remind Dad." Alex stole another fry while Justin dialed, then another, then went back to her own plate as he looked, keeping an innocent expression up.

"Hey," Justin said into the phone. "We were just talking about you guys coming out next week, and wondering if Dad's made reservations yet." He paused a moment, listening, and his eyebrows went up. "Really?" he asked, and Alex tilted her head to the side, looking at him with curiosity. "That's great!" There was another pause, and he said, "Oh. Okay. We'll see you Saturday, then. Bye." He waited a moment for Lexie's goodbye, then hung up.

"Well... they made reservations. Actually, Lexie made them."

Justin stopped, grinning a little, and Alex rolled her eyes. "I know she said something you want to tell me. So spill. I'm not going to beg."

"Max is coming with them," Justin let out in a rush, and Alex actually jumped a little in her seat and clapped her hands together.

"That's great! Oh, I knew he couldn't stay mad at us forever!" Turning sideways in the booth, she hugged Justin, kissed him quickly, then hugged more, putting her head to his shoulder for a moment. "That makes up for everything else today!"

Justin leaned his head onto Alex's, put an arm around her and hugged her back one-armed for a moment, but even as he did, he frowned a little, replaying the conversation in his head.

_"Max is coming too," _she'd said.

_"That's great!"_

_"Well, maybe not so much - he wants to see Alex, but he doesn't want to see _you_."_


	3. Chapter 3

Justin was relieved to see that their lock was still intact when they got back home, but he didn't say anything about it, not wanting to worry Alex. She'd been happy all through dinner after the news about Max, and he couldn't bear to spoil her mood.

He cringed a little mentally as he closed the door behind them and looked around. The spot where the TV should have been stood out as a blank area of wall, contrasting with Alex's artwork and his posters. Then Alex said, "Well. I was going to say we should watch a movie, but we can't do that, since we don't have a TV. Or a DVD player. Or any movies."

"I know," Justin answered, sighing slightly. "I'll go file the insurance -" He stopped then as he turned and looked at Alex, who was gazing at him with an innocent look, hands behind her back like a schoolgirl called on in class, back arched slightly to push out her breasts, and a slight smile.

"I guess we'll have to entertain ourselves some other way," she said in an innocent voice, eyes a little wide. "Do you have any ideas about how else we could have fun?"

Smiling in return, Justin moved over and put his arm around Alex's waist, looking down into her eyes. "I think I have an idea for something we can do."

"Do you?" Alex turned back and forth, her smile growing into a grin. "What's that?"

"Turn around and I'll show you." His hands on her hips, Justin guided his sister to turn her back to him, then said, "Bend over," moving one hand to her shoulder and pushing forward.

Alex obeyed, putting her hands against the wall for support. "So what are you going to show me like this?" she asked, keeping up the act. "Is there something on the wall - oh!" Justin ground his hips against Alex's ass, and she said, "That's not really showing me, though…."

He moved his hand from her shoulder to her breast, fondled her through her top. "Oh, you'll get to see it in a few minutes. Right now, though, I'm going to entertain _me_ first." Moving his hand down, Justin pulled Alex's top up, slid his hand under it and cupped her through her bra. He moved his hips to rhythmically press himself against her, moving his free hand to pull her curly black hair aside.

Alex gasped as Justin's mouth pressed against her neck in a strong, sucking kiss. She shivered with it, knees feeling suddenly weak as he nipped her, kissing with an intensity that she knew was going to leave a mark. _Oh, I've missed that. He hasn't kissed me like that since before the competition._

She put one hand behind her, on the back of Justin's head, ran her fingers through his hair. "Mmm, yes. I'm yours, Justin… mark me." Justin closed his eyes and worried the skin between his teeth, and Alex moaned, the spot on her neck hurting even as tingles of pleasure went through her in waves. His hand was squeezing her breast, and she moaned again, louder this time, as he took her stiff nipple between thumb and forefinger, rolled it slightly.

She started to rock her hips back against him, meeting his motion, and then suddenly Justin turned her around and pressed against her, trapping her with her back to the wall, and Alex moaned again as he pulled her top off, then kissed her hard on the mouth, entering her with his tongue. Molding herself against him, Alex met his tongue with hers, dancing them against each other, her hands going to Justin's shoulders, feeling the muscles there.

She squealed into the kiss as Justin wrapped his arms around her chest, lifted her and swung her around, then broke the kiss to crouch and pick her up in his arms. Alex giggled a little as he started to carry her into the bedroom, smiled and looked up at Justin. "And where are you taking me, Mister Russo?" she said, voice teasing. "Am I going to like it?"

"Oh, I think you will," he answered, then grinned. "I know _I _will."

"Are you going to use me for your pleasure? Do you treat all the girls like this?" she asked in her fake-innocent voice, batting her eyes at him, and Justin shook his head, setting her on her feet.

A flash of memory came to Justin then…. _He lifted Beth off her feet, carried her to the bed of his dorm room, then half-dumped her onto it, prompting giggles from her. He turned then, to face his desk, where Alex sat in his chair, eyes wide and red-rimmed from crying. Grabbing Alex by the hair with one hand, he dragged her head down. "Show her how I like to be sucked, Alex." He twirled his wand in his fingers, grinning as his sister closed her eyes and swallowed, then took him in her mouth. "That's right… show her how a good little cocksucker does it…."_

Justin shook his head, pushing the memory away. "Yes, I am," he managed, "And no - just you." He circled Alex, touched her shoulder with his fingertips, resisted the sudden urge to push down and force her to her knees, make her take him like that. Instead, he glided his hand across the smooth skin of her back, down to the strap of her bra, caught the clasp of it and brought up his other hand to unsnap it.

Focusing on a different memory, his _own _memory, Justin drew Alex's bra off, smiling as she moved her arms to help, then let it fall to the floor. Standing behind her, Justin moved closer to his sister, put his hands on her waist. He slid them forward, and she expected him to move them up to her breasts, but he didn't. Instead, he hooked two fingers into the waistband of her skirt, ran them around until they found the hooks he knew were there. Taking the outer part, Justin lifted and tugged lightly, but the hooks stayed caught, and Alex moved one hand to help him, brushing her fingers against his as she did. She caught the inner part and held it still while Justin tugged again, then moved his fingers to the zipper beneath, pulled it downward.

He took Alex's hand then, and they let the skirt fall to the floor as they laced fingers for a moment. Justin smiled, the flash of memory forgotten for the moment, and kissed her shoulder, moved his free hand to cup her breast and lift it slightly. Bending his knees slowly, he kissed his way down her back, zig-zagging between her shoulderblades, then to each side of her spine as he continued. Planting a kiss a few inches above the line of Alex's panties, Justin tugged them down, exposing her, then kissed her right cheek as he slid them down the rest of the way.

Then Justin held Alex's shoes as she stepped out of them, leaving her fully naked. Taking her hand, he gently guided her to turn around, then kissed the triangle between her legs, stroked her belly with both hands, kissed her there, moving up slowly. Three months along, she was showing just the barest hint of a bulge there, below her belly button. Looking up at Alex, Justin planted three kisses there, moved up and kissed her navel, came up to her right breast and felt it with his hand, gently took her nipple and sucked it.

Alex stroked Justin's hair, closing her eyes. "Oh… not quite so hard. They're really sensitive right now." Justin stroked her in answer as he lessened his suction a little, then worked her nipple with his tongue for a moment. Tingling waves went through Alex at that, and she couldn't hold still, found herself squirming. Then Justin touched her between her legs, stroked her there with his fingers, and she moaned and clutched her fingers together in his hair.

He smiled, finding her entrance slick and ready, and stood back up fully, kissed Alex on the lips, then guided her to the bed. She sat on the edge, and Justin looked down into his sister's deep brown eyes, stroked fingers through her hair as she smiled up into his green orbs. "Do you remember what I told you, the first night we were together?" he asked, then went on without waiting for an answer. "You are perfect. And you still are." He put a hand on her shoulder, the other on her back, lowered her onto her back, moving onto the bed as he did.

"Your lips are perfect." He kissed her mouth, moved over to her cheek. "Your cheek is perfect," he said, then kissed her there, moved up over Alex's eyebrow as she giggled. "Your eyebrow is perfect." A kiss there, and he stroked his fingers through her hair as he moved down. "Your chin is perfect," he said, then gave her the matching kiss.

Justin raised himself up for a moment, started to unbutton his shirt, and Alex moved her hands to the bottom button, helping to speed the process. A few seconds later, they cast his shirt aside, and Justin lowered himself again, said, "Your collarbone is perfect," kissed her there.

Alex felt tears welling up, blinked them away. "You don't have to -"

"Shh." Justin moved back to Alex's mouth, kissed her there briefly, then looked down into her eyes, stroked her hair slowly. "Listen to me, Alex. You are exactly what I want. Just the way you are." He moved his hand down, stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers, said, "I love you. Every inch of you." Justin paused, smiled a little more, said, "Always and forever."

Smiling back, Alex lifted her head up and kissed Justin, then said, "I love you too. Always and forever."

"I know." He kissed her back, moved down again. "I think I said before that this is better than perfect?" Justin asked, then kissed Alex's breast, took her nipple and sucked for a moment. "It still is. And now there's even more perfection here."

Alex smiled at that, then arched her back as he took her nipple again, sucked harder this time. He stroked her arm, cupped and squeezed her other breast, then moved his mouth to it, sucked her other nipple. Breaking off, Justin moved down, said, "I'll get back to those in a minute. But first…." Justin kissed Alex's belly, just below her navel, kissed her there again, then a third time. "This is perfect. And its going to make a perfect little baby."

He came back up to her breast then, kissed a circle on it, reaching down to open his pants as he did. Alex helped with both her hands, pulling down on Justin's pants and underwear as he pushed his shoes off with his feet. In a few moments, all that was left of their clothing was Justin's socks, and Alex eagerly parted her legs for him, put her hand to the back of Justin's head and pulled him down to kiss her, opened her mouth to admit his tongue.

Then he was in her below as well, and she moaned into the kiss, kept moaning as he broke it, raked her fingernails across her brother's back as he thrust in and out of her, filling her with each stroke. "Oh… oh, Justin…."

Justin kept pumping silently, his arms under Alex, gripping her shoulders as if clinging on for dear life, face buried in her hair as he tried to cling to his memories of their first time together, to keep out the other memories that kept pushing in. _Alex crying out in pain as entered her, holding her down and scratching at her back, pounding into her as hard as he could as she cried. _No. He closed his eyes tightly, breathed in the scent of her hair, kissed the side of her face. "I love you," he murmured, then said it again, those words that the other Justin had never said. "I love you, Alex."

"I love you too," she answered, and he gripped her harder, then slackened his grip as she stiffened.

"Sorry," he said, but Alex shook her head. "It's okay. Just be a little more careful." She kissed the side of his head, then tightened her arms around him. "Ohh… harder, I'm almost there…."

Stopping for a moment, Justin pulled Alex to the edge of the bed, stood and gripped her by her hips, began to ride her as hard as he could, smiled as he watched her eyes close and her mouth open as she came. He kept it up for a minute or so, then bent down, lowered himself across her, put his hands on her breasts and held them together, watched how they moved as he thrust in and out of Alex.

"Oh, yes, Alex…." He felt the tension gathering down below, brought his mouth down to hers and thrust his tongue into her even as his hips bucked with his release. As he came, a memory came as well, too strong to keep out. _He held Alex down by her shoulders, leaning down on her, thrusting into her with brutal force as she cried out, grinning with pleasure at her pain. He raked his fingernails down her back, leaving red marks. _Justin broke the kiss immediately as he felt tears welling up, moved his head to the side to let them fall onto the pillow there.

Justin breathed in quickly, pulled his face to the side, wiping his tears into the pillow, managed to compose his face into a smile before he came back up and looked down at Alex, brushed his fingers through her hair. She had a peaceful, satisfied smile on her face, and Justin focused on that, kissed her on the forehead, then briefly on the lips.

"I love you," he said, and stroked her hair, kissed her again. He moved to the side and took Alex in his arms, held her like that for a minute, not speaking, the two of them simply enjoying each other's presence.

_

* * *

Justin pounded Alex with jackhammer force, held his hand over her mouth to stifle her cries. She was bent over the arm of the couch in the Lair, his other hand on her shoulder, holding her down and pulling her back against his thrusts. She opened her mouth, tried to bite him, but he pulled his fingers away before she could, smacked the side of her face with his open hand. _

_"Little bitch," he growled, pulled his hand back to hit her again when a voice interrupted._

_"Stop it!" Max called out, and Justin turned his head to look at him, grinned._

_"I don't think so," he said, shaking his head. "I'm afraid I'm having much too much fun with our sister here." He grinned wider, grabbed Alex's shoulder and pulled her up. Max looked away from her naked body, and Justin laughed. "She's such a sexy little thing. But you're too young to appreciate that, aren't you?"_

_Max purpled, then looked back, keeping his eyes fixed on Justin's. "I'm going to kill you. I'm not going to keep letting you do this to Alex."_

_Justin laughed, still thrusting into Alex. "You can't stop me. You don't have any idea how strong I am, Max."_

_"Don't hurt him," Alex said then. "Please, Justin. You can do what you want to me, but -"_

_"Shut up!" Justin smacked her again, then held out his hand as Max raised his wand. "_You're impinging on my virility, say goodbye to your magical ability,_" he intoned, and Max staggered as a crackling ball of light shot from his chest into Justin's hand. "I'm going to have to make you forget this later," Justin said. "But right now -"_

_Max made a wordless scream of fury and charged toward Justin. Never stopping his thrusts, Justin pointed to Max, said, "_Fractus tibia dexter._" There was a cracking sound, and Max screamed as he fell down._

_"What did you -?" Alex called out, trying to pull away from Justin, but he twisted her arm back._

_"I just broke his leg. Like this." He pointed again, said, "_Fractus tibia sinister._" There was another cracking sound, and another scream, and Alex sobbed._

_"Don't! Please…."_

Justin woke up with a start, sat up in the dark of their bedroom, turned to look at Alex beside him. She was sleeping, mouth slightly open, and he felt a flood of relief, seeing her there safe. He breathed in and out for a minute, then slid off the bed carefully, knowing that there was no way he was going to be able to go back to sleep right now. By the glow of the alarm clock (he'd finally given up sleeping with a night light a few years ago), Justin made his way to the door, slipped out into the living area, closed the door silently, keeping the knob turned until it was completely shut, then slowly releasing it.

He crossed to the kitchenette, turned on the light there, filled a cup with water and put it into the microwave, turned it on. Justin kept an eye on the timer as he got out the tea bags and sugar, pressed the 'stop' button with two seconds left, so it wouldn't make the four long beeps of the timer running out, worried that might wake Alex up.

Next he put the tea bags into the cup, carefully dangling the tags over the side, got out a spoon, put sugar into the cup, closed the sugar canister back up and put it away. As he moved, Justin concentrated on his breathing, trying to keep his mind clear of everything but the simple physical actions of making the tea. He lifted the bags from the cup, let the water run from them, stirred with the other hand as he did, then lowered them back in.

Justin repeated that several times, until the tea was a dark brown, then took out the bags again, lifted the spoon against them, wrapped the strings around and pulled, squeezing them out like that, set the bags into the sink. He took one ice cube from the freezer, dropped it in, gave the tea one last stir, then carried it to the futon, sat down on it cross-legged and closed his eyes, let his head dangle loosely over the cup, breathing in the smell of the tea as it cooled.

The tea was something else the other Justin didn't do, and the scent comforted him, reminded him who he really was. _But it's not enough. I need more than this. This is… what, the third night in a row I've had dreams from his memories now? It's got to stop._

He took a deep drink from the tea, grimaced a little as he discovered it wasn't quite as cool as he thought. Setting it aside for the moment, Justin took a deep breath and tried to organize his thoughts, but thoughts of the dream he'd just had, coupled with the call from earlier, wouldn't stop intruding. _Does Max remember those things? I - the other Justin wiped his memories, but how does that interact with the past being changed? If he does..._ Justin shook his head. _I can't blame him for not wanting to see me. I wouldn't either, in his place._

Forty minutes later, the tea cold and his memories still not under control, Justin picked up his cell phone and moved as far from the bedroom door as he could before dialing the number Professor Crumbs had given him. He had to wait a minute before an answer came, and when it did, he said, "Hi. This is Justin Russo. Professor Crumbs gave me your number… oh, he told you about me? I'm sorry for calling so late, but… I need help."


	4. Chapter 4

It was just after 11:30 when Justin remembered that he'd told Marie he'd meet her at noon at the student union. He hustled a bit to make it, slowed down as he entered the courtyard, then began looking for her. He spotted her after a minute, standing up from where she was and walking toward him, smiling brightly.

She was wearing a frilly green top with spaghetti straps and a black skirt, with matching pumps. It seemed a lot… more girly than what Marie usually wore to class, and Justin blinked a little at that. _She didn't get dressed up for this, did she?_ _Of course she didn't. _He wasn't really convinced, though, and he frowned, thinking about it.

_Well, there's only another four weeks in the semester, and then I'll be out of sight, out of mind for her. No reason to make an issue of it if she has a crush._ When Marie came in easy speaking distance, she said, "Hi! Are you hungry? I was thinking we could get lunch while we work, since we're here anyway. I'll buy."

"Lunch sounds good," Justin answered, "but I can't let you buy mine. Thanks for the offer, though," he said, giving her what he hoped would come across as only a polite smile.

"Okay." Marie laughed lightly, said, "I figured you'd say that. But I felt like I should offer anyway."

Ten minutes later, they were seated at one of the many tables. Justin deliberately sat across from Marie rather than next to her, and ate carefully as he looked over the printout of Marie's program and pointed out problem spots. She seemed to be acting friendly, but not over the line in any way, and he started to relax.

He looked at her as she asked another question - and suddenly an image flashed through his mind, of Marie naked, both wrists handcuffed to the clothes bar of a closet, her eyes wide and scared-looking as he stepped toward her, naked as well - _No. No. Stop._ He looked away from her, across the courtyard, looking up at the architecture of one corner as if thinking seriously about what she was saying.

_Definitely need to not do this again. Thank God there's only four weeks left. _Twelve class sessions that would be. Those would be safe enough. He had office hours twice a week, but she'd only been coming to one of those. If she kept that up...

Justin's gaze traveled downward as he thought, and then he blinked as he saw Alex entering the courtyard, looking around for him. Automatically, he lifted his hand and waved at her, standing up partway. Aloud, he said, "Oh, hey - there's my wife."

Marie turned to look for a moment, and before Justin could say anything else, she turned back to him, said, "I just remembered, I promised a friend I'd meet him at one. Thanks for the help, but I've really got to go." She started quickly putting her books into her backpack as a somewhat confused Justin looked at her for a moment, then back over to Alex, who was looking a little annoyed as she wove her way among the tables and people.

Torn between wanting Marie out of the way, just in case Alex's pregnancy hormones spurred her old jealousy back up, and wanting to introduce her to Alex in hopes that would dampen any crush she might have, Justin said, "If you have to go, that's okay, but if you could stay a minute -"

And then he cut off as he noticed that Marie was already gone. _Runs away in a panic at the news that my wife is here,_ the analytical part of his brain calmly noted. _Crush confirmed._ Just then, Alex rounded the last table between her and his table, and Justin stepped over to meet her, taking her hand and smiling. "Hi. What brings you out here?"

Alex waved off-handedly toward the east, said, "Oh, I had to meet a potential client a few blocks over. The meeting wrapped up early - they liked my stuff - so I decided to come over here and see if I could find you." She smiled brightly and leaned toward him a little, and Justin leaned in as well, kissed her briefly.

"Well, good. How long do you have?"

Shrugging a little, Alex said, "I don't have anything else that's scheduled today. So I thought I'd hang out with you until you have your next class. Two-thirty, isn't it?"

Justin nodded. "Yeah." An odd reluctance to continue came up in him, but he pressed on regardless, saying, "I was just helping a student with her program. She was there for my office hours yesterday when you called, so had to make up for the interruption."

"Oh. Okay." Alex paused a moment, then said, "You sit back down. I'm going to grab something from one of these places and be right back." She kissed him again, said, "Love you," and headed off toward the barbecue place.

As he sat back down, Justin watched her, aware that he had a slightly sappy smile on his face, but not really caring who saw it. Even after two months here, he still felt a little giddy at being able to be out in public with Alex like this without any worries at all about who might see them. After a moment, though, the smile faded as thoughts started to bubble up. _Should I tell her about Marie's crush? I think I can handle it, and I don't want to worry her, but..._

He frowned a little, then nodded to himself. _Yeah, tell her. If she thinks I tried to hide it, that'll be worse than just telling her. _And, he didn't say even in the privacy of his own head, if he tried to hide it, that would make it easier to follow through with those images the _other_ side of his mind was shoving at him.

A few minutes later, Alex returned. Looking over the barbecue sandwich, chips, and pickle on plate, Justin smiled and raised an eyebrow. "I take it your stomach's still behaving."

"Yes!" She smiled gleefully as she sat down next to him, then leaned against him for a moment, putting her head on his shoulder. Justin twisted his neck to kiss her for a moment, and then she sat back up straight. "For breakfast I had _waffles_," she said, stretching the word out. "With syrup and _butter_. It was wonderful."

Justin grinned. "That's great," he said, then took a breath. _The longer I wait, the less likely I'll tell her. So here goes._ "That girl who I was helping - I think she has a bit of a crush on me."

Alex raised an eyebrow, turned her head a little to eye him as she took a bite, chewed, swallowed. "Yeah?"

He nodded, said, "Yeah. She keeps coming to my office hours with questions that she _should_ know the answers to, as well as she's doing on the quizzes. And she offered to buy me lunch, and then she made an excuse and ran off when I told her my wife was coming this way."

"Uh-huh." She raised her eyebrow again, a bit differently this time. "Yeah, that sounds like a crush all right." Alex looked Justin up and down, then smiled a little, said, "Of course, I can see why. You _are _the young, hot TA."

"Sure." Justin rolled his eyes, and Alex nudged him with her elbow, grinned.

"You are. I can definitely vouch for that." She leaned against him again, stretched up like she was going to kiss his cheek, then licked his ear. Justin jumped at that and cried out "Alex!"

She giggled, then said, "Sorry. Sometimes you're just too easy." He gave her a glare, but in less than a second it turned into a smile as he shook his head. Sitting back down, he ruffled Alex's hair a little, then kissed her softly, a long, lingering kiss that blended into several shorter kisses, neither of them caring about the people around them who were looking.

* * *

"Well, time for me to go in, I'm afraid." Justin ran his fingers through Alex's hair, smiled at her.

"Yeah. I wish you didn't have to." Alex leaned forward and kissed him, then sighed. "Well, I'll see you when you get home. Five, right?"

"Oh…." Justin snapped his fingers as if remembering something, said, "I'll be a little late tonight. I need to go by the library and do some research."

"Oh." Alex looked down and traced her fingers on the back of Justin's hand for a moment, then looked back up at him, smiled a little. "Okay. I'll see you then." They both stood up, and Justin gave her a kiss, stroked her cheek and smiled.

"I'll make it as fast as I can. I love you." They looked at each other for another couple of seconds, caught each other's hands and both squeezed. With a little wave, Justin opened the door to the classroom and backed into it.

Alex stayed until the door closed completely, then turned to go. Inside, Justin walked to his desk and put down his attache. _I hate lying to Alex. Still, I can't tell her where I'm really going. Not without also telling her about all the 'other Justin' thoughts and memories I'm having, and she doesn't need that worry right now. _


	5. Chapter 5

Justin sat on a bench in Hoover Park and watched a golden retriever play fetch with its owner, wearing a trace of a smile at the dog's enthusiasm for the game. _We should get a pet. Maybe not until after the baby comes, though. _He looked down then, at the pavement of the path, his mouth drawing tight.

The baby. That still had Justin worried, although not for the reasons he'd originally been. He and Alex were making enough money, and their insurance would cover the birth. Their father had reassured them that their baby should be okay - wizards had been inbreeding for a long time, and even in brother-sister marriages, birth defects were rare among them. Justin still worried over that, even though there was really nothing that could be done about it. After a long discussion between themselves, they'd told Alex's doctor that they were siblings and had worries on that account. She'd scheduled Alex for an ultrasound at nineteen weeks - five weeks away, now - and that ought to be able to detect any major physical abnormalities. Although, of course, they couldn't be certain there were no problems until the baby was born.

She'd also recommended genetic testing, but they hadn't been able to decide on that - if they paid for it through insurance, then the fact that they'd had it would be in the insurance records, which weren't as private as the doctor's... and, the doctor had informed them, there had been cases of insurance companies demanding to have the results of the testing, then refusing coverage for conditions that the testing showed to be present. And they didn't have the money to pay for it themselves.

Justin's mouth twisted a little. _Six months until she's due. And then I'll be a father._ It still didn't feel real, but he knew all too well that it was. Justin thought he was ready to be a father, and that Alex was more ready than she knew… but -

"Justin Russo?" He looked up at the speaker, found himself looking into a pair of pale blue eyes, almost grey, underneath blonde bangs.

The woman smiled at him and raised an eyebrow inquisitively, and then Justin responded. "Yes. I take it you're Doctor Jacobs?"

"Yes, I am., but there's no need to stand on formality - you can call me Rose." She sat down on the other end of the bench, offered a hand which Justin shook. "I hope you don't mind meeting here. Your situation is unusual, but I'm afraid not unusual enough for the Council to allow you into the wizard world to come to my office."

"I understand. I'm grateful that Professor Crumbs was able to arrange this at all."

Rose smiled a little at him, said, "Well, I have to admit, I'm hoping to get a paper out of this. It's very unusual for there to be such a complete memory transfer from an alternate self."

"Yeah." Justin's mouth twisted for a moment, and when he spoke, his voice was dry. "I'm just lucky, I guess."

"I'm sorry," she said then. "I know this has to be terrible for you." Neither of them spoke for a moment. Rose broke the silence. "We should get started. Professor Crumbs told me what he could, but I'd like to hear it from you. Tell me about what happened."

Justin lowered his head for a moment, looking at the sidewalk between his feet. "Well, it started when my sister, Alex, and I were having an argument. She'd just told me that she was pregnant with my baby, and I told her we had to tell our parents about us. We'd been keeping our relationship a secret from them, and…."

Partway through Justin's recounting, they'd gotten up to walk as they talked. At first, they'd followed the path, but then they'd left it to walk beside the dry creek bed that ran along one edge of the park.

Rose looked sideways at Justin from where she was walking, a few feet to his right. "And you have _all_ of your alternate's memories? Not just the ones from the period of the spell?"

"As far as I can tell," Justin answered, nodding. "I remember his childhood. He was… a textbook sociopath. Complete lack of remorse. No empathy for other people at all." He shivered a little, despite the warmth of the day. "He was manipulative, lied constantly… but could be downright charming when he wanted."

Justin paused a moment, took a deep breath. "I think he may have killed people. I know he killed Max, in the competition."

"You think he may have?" Rose frowned at him. "I thought you said you had all of his memories?"

He reached up to scratch his forehead, nodded as he did. "Yeah. But he definitely knew how to erase memories, and I think he may have done that to himself. He had a kind of... fascination with committing a perfect crime. I know he thought about erasing his memories to do that, so he could have a perfect facade of innocence."

Justin lifted a hand, palm up, and continued, saying, "I know nobody has perfect memory of everything they've ever done, but some of the holes in his memories seem... too convenient. Like TJ - he drained TJ's powers, I remember that, but I don't remember what happened afterward. But I remember him reading about TJ having disappeared... and being happy about it."

Rose asked, "How does all that make you feel?"

"Terrified, honestly. I don't want to be like that. And even just the memories of the things he did -" Justin shook his head. "I'm having problems sometimes, having… having sex with Alex. I keep getting flashes of things that he did to her." Justin paused a moment, licked his lips. "He did horrible things to her. Abused her - physically, emotionally, and sexually."

Rose looked at Justin again, taking in his expression. "And you can't keep those memories out?"

"No. I keep trying, focusing on other memories instead. But it's not helping enough. And it feels like it's getting worse." He looked over to Rose, said, "That's why I called you. Crumbs said you could help."

She nodded. "I definitely can. Right now, these memories are all new to you. When you recall them, it's like you're experiencing them for the first time, and so you have a strong emotional reaction to them. It's similar to post-traumatic stress." Rose stopped walking, turned toward Justin, and he did likewise.

"The fact that these memories _do_ distress you so much is a good sign, though. I'd be a lot more worried about you if they didn't. The main thing we need to do is desensitize you to the memories. To do that, you need to recall and review the memories while you're in a safe, calming environment. Doing that will let you process them properly and work through your emotional reactions to the memories."

Justin frowned at that, and Rose held up a hand. "I know. You were expecting a magical approach. And if you have severe problems with some of the memories, we may try erasing those. But wholesale memory erasure is easy to get wrong. If we tried to erase all your memories of your alternate quickly, we'd almost certainly erase some of your own memories as well. In a more normal case, I'd try having you recall the memories and erase them one at a time, but with you having literally _years_ of your alternate's memories, that would take a great deal of time."

"I... suppose that makes sense." The disappointment in Justin's voice was clear, and Rose gave him a sympathetic look.

"Once I've shown you how to do the memory review, you'll be able to do it on your own, which will let us work a lot faster than if we were erasing memories one at a time. Given your situation, I think something that can be done faster is better."

"Yeah, I definitely agree with that." Justin took a breath, let it out. "So, what do we do now?"

Rose tilted her head toward a nearby bench, said, "We go sit down over there and get started. I'll work through it a couple of times with you today," she went on, Justin falling into step beside her as she started toward the bench. "And I'll expect you to do more work on your own before we meet again next week."

Justin nodded as they sat down, looked around to see if anyone was nearby. There was no one within fifty yards or so of them, and he felt relieved by that, but even so, he kept his voice low. "So... where should I start? At the beginning? With the most disturbing memories?"

"We'll tackle one of the more disturbing ones first. But the first thing is for you to relax. So right now, take a deep breath, then let it out slowly, counting as you do..."

* * *

"Mrs. Russo, have you seen Max?"

Theresa put her hand to her chest, her eyes going wide, said, "Oh! Oh, Tutor... please don't startle me like that. I'm not used to people just teleporting into the living room!"

"I'm sorry!" Tutor walked to the older woman, put a hand on her arm. "I didn't even think about that - growing up in the wizard world, we had people popping in like that all the time."

"Well, we don't... and please keep in mind, we could have mortal guests."

"I'm sorry," Tutor said again. "I'll make sure to come in through the lair from now on."

"Thank you." Theresa smiled at the girl then - she couldn't stay mad at Tutor, and even though she knew it was because the girl was part elf, she couldn't help liking her. And besides, she really did seem to love Max, and that was the important thing. "I'm not sure where Max is right now, though. Kelbo might, though - they were looking at - oh, I'm probably not supposed to tell you, but they went looking at apartments in the wizard world yesterday. I don't think they found anything yet, though."

"Oh, I knew about that," Tutor said, nodding. "I actually asked Kelbo first - called him on his wand. And yes, I tried Max's wand, but he's either ignoring it, or he's turned it to sparkle again and forgotten that he did." Tutor rolled her eyes a little at that - while much of Max's old behavior had been an act, not all of it was, and he really _could_ be absent-minded sometimes.

"Anyway," she said then, "I'm going to go look for him in a few other places. Thanks!" Tutor gave a cheery little wave, then stopped in mid-wand as Theresa held up a finger.

"Are you still coming out with us to see Alex and Justin?" she asked, and Tutor nodded, smiling.

"Oh, yes. I'll be meeting you out there, though." The blonde girl grimaced a little, said, "As much as I'd love to see what it's like to ride on a plane, I don't have any mortal ID. So I can't." She shrugged a little, hoping Theresa wouldn't be disturbed by that. Tutor still wasn't sure what would and wouldn't trigger her dislike of magic, and really didn't want to offend Max's family - any of them.

"That's all right," Theresa said, waving it off. "I'm just happy you'll be out there with Max. You seem to be a calming influence on him, and believe me," Theresa said, holding up a hand, "I'm happy for _anything_ that helps keep Max calmer."

"Oh, hey!" That was Lexie, coming down the stairs. She went down them quickly, gave Tutor a quick hug. "Good to see you! Are you here for long?"

Tutor smiled as she returned the hug, said, "I was just looking for Max. But it's good to see you too."

As the two of them broke the hug, Theresa said, "Tutor, why don't you just stay here right now - stay and have dinner with us. Max'll be back for that. He never misses a meal if he can help it."

"Yeah," Lexie added, "and you can meet my girlfriend. She's going to be coming over too."

After considering that for a moment, Tutor nodded. "That does sound like a better idea than running all over the place looking for him." She looked around the kitchen, then asked, "What can I do to help?"

Theresa smiled, while Lexie rolled her eyes. "You don't have to do the kiss-up thing, you know. We all like you."

"Oh, I know," Tutor replied with a smile. "I just like being helpful."

"Yeah, well… I don't." Theresa gave Lexie a look, and she rolled her eyes again, then said, "But since I've got someone coming too, I will. Is that better, Mom?"

"Yes. Oh, and don't forget, you promised to do the laundry today."

Lexie rolled her eyes again, and Theresa added, "You know, we _could_ just start charging you rent. You're twenty now. If you want to keep living here, it's not so much to ask that you help out with things."

"All right, all right… I'll be back once I get the laundry started." Lexie started up the stairs while Theresa and Tutor were opening cabinets and getting out what they'd need. _Sheesh. I really need to get an apartment. There being two of us kind of wrecked the 'sponge off of Justin while I go to college' plan. And why did he and Alex have to move all the way out to California? Now I can't even crash over there when Mom and Dad get too annoying!_

It'd actually been good to hear his voice, the night before, and she was finding herself _looking forward_ to seeing him next week… but not to seeing Alex. _I don't know how I'm going to break the news about my new relationship to her. Well, we'll be there all week, so I don't have to do it right away. I'm sure I'll come up with something._


	6. Chapter 6

Alex and Tutor were waiting for Max, Lexie, Theresa, and Jerry when they came out into the unsecured portion of the airport. Theresa rushed forward first, to hug her daughter, saying, "Oh, it's good to see you!" Jerry was next in line to hug her, and as they hugged, Theresa looked about, then asked, "Where's Justin?"

Lexie and Alex both looked at Max at that, trying not to be obvious about it. A slight tightening of his eyebrows was the only sign he'd heard that, and Tutor leaned over and whispered to Theresa, explaining that since Max didn't want to see Justin, he was out with the car. Tutor and Max were going to rent a car and ride to the hotel with Alex, while Justin would drive Jerry, Theresa, and Lexie there.

While she explained that, Alex and Lexie hugged each other. "You changed your hair," Alex said as they broke the hug, looking at the sheer, straight fall of Lexie's hair, which was very different from her own curls. She seemed to have colored it a bit as well, making it a few shades lighter than Alex's nearly-black.

"Yeah." Lexie gestured up to it and shrugged. "I felt like doing something different." She gave Alex a quick wink, then said, "And I was thinking about staying with you two a couple of nights instead of at the hotel, if that's okay, so I thought it might help if we were easier to tell apart."

"Oh." Alex wasn't sure what else to say to that, as she momentarily wondered if Lexie was expecting to have a threesome with them while she was there. _We've done it before, sure, but the last time had been a couple of years ago, and -_

Her thought was interrupted, though, as Max stepped forward and hugged her then. He started to lift her off her feet, then stopped, said, "Sorry, I didn't think -"

Alex laughed at that, then kissed him on the cheek. "Go ahead, silly. You're not going to break me or the baby."

Max grinned, said, "Okay, then," and lifted Alex off her feet as he hugged her again. Putting her back down, he let go of Alex slowly, wearing a slightly shamefaced expression as he did. "I'm sorry about not talking to you the last couple of months," he started, but Alex shook her head and touched his upper arm lightly.

"Don't worry about it. We're talking again now. Okay?"

He nodded back to that, and Jerry asked, "Which way is the luggage pickup, anyway?"

Alex turned around and pointed, said, "The escalator there goes down to it." Jerry started walking, and then they all did, Tutor moving over to Max and giving him a quick kiss, Lexie following Alex.

"Wow, this is a tiny airport," Lexie said as they started to get onto the escalator. "They must not get a lot of people coming in and out of here."

"Well, San Francisco gets most of the air traffic," Alex replied. "And Oakland gets more than San Jose. Which is strange, since San Jose has more -"

"Justin went and looked it up, then told you all about it, didn't he?" Lexie cut in, and then smiled as Alex nodded. "Figures. Takes a geek like him to study up on airports."

There was a moment's awkward silence again at the mention of Justin. The group stopped, and while Max, Jerry, and Tutor looked at the three baggage carousels to try to figure out which one the luggage would be coming out on, Theresa turned to Alex and put her hand to her daughter's belly.

"Have you been eating enough? You don't seem to have gained much weight yet. You need to remember, you're eating for two now." Alex rolled her eyes, and Lexie giggled at the two of them.

Theresa turned and stepped toward her then, saying, "Let me see your belly. I want to compare."

"Hey! No, no -" Lexie put her hands up and took a step back, and then it was Alex's turn to giggle as her duplicate backed into a sign and almost tripped.

"Mom... yes, I'm eating," Alex said as Theresa helped Lexie back up - and put her hand on Lexie's belly. "I just stopped having morning sickness a few days ago, though. I was having a hard time keeping it down for a while there."

Theresa made a sympathetic face, while Lexie pretend-gagged. Alex shot Lexie a look, and Lexie grinned, said, "I'm glad I'm never going to have to deal with that. You and Tutor can make the next generation of Russos. Leave me out of it."

"Well," Theresa said, putting on her patented superior look as she put an arm around Alex, "_you_ may not want to ever know the joys of motherhood, but -"

"Yeah, yeah," Lexie said, waving a hand. "If I want 'joys of motherhood,' I'll adopt, and skip the pregnancy thing. Don't hold your breath, though."

As the three of them continued to banter back and forth, Alex found herself smiling. _Wow. I've actually missed this. Now if Justin were just here..._

* * *

"Hey," Justin said, getting up from the bench where he'd been waiting. "Good to see you." Jerry set down the bags he was carrying, and he and Justin hugged.

The two men patted each other on the back for a moment. As they broke apart, Jerry smiled at his son, said, "It's good to see you too."

Justin turned to Lexie, smiled at her, then opened his arms. "Miss your big brother?"

She rolled her eyes at that, her voice dripping sarcasm as she answered, "Yeah. Whenever I can." But her smile didn't match the sarcasm, nor did the way she stepped up to Justin and hugged him tightly.

"So where's Mom?" Justin looked around for her as he gave Lexie a squeeze.

"She wanted to talk to Alex about the baby, how she's feeling, all that, so she's riding with them."

Justin nodded to that. As he and Lexie broke their hug, he moved quickly, grabbed the bags Lexie had been carrying. "You don't have to race me for them," she said, smiling. "I was planning on making you carry them anyway."

"Oh, were you?" Justin raised an eyebrow and smiled, then started walking, leading the way toward where he'd parked. "Well, consider this my way of foiling your plan. You can't wile me into carrying your bags if I already am."

"Curses," Lexie said, snapping her fingers and smiling as she fell into step to Justin's right. "You've outsmarted me again."

* * *

Max kept glancing at Alex in the rear view mirror as he drove. Tutor was sitting up front with him, while Alex and Theresa took the back seat of their rented Fusion. Theresa was continuing to pester Alex about how she was eating, if she was exercising enough, and telling stories about when she had been pregnant with each of them.

_Whatever Alex is doing, she looks healthy enough. Hell, she's practically glowing._ He'd heard people talk about pregnant women "glowing" before, but had never seen it. Now, though, looking at how looked even more beautiful than usual, he understood what people meant by it. _Justin doesn't deserve her. _He frowned a little as he looked back toward the road ahead of them. "Do I need to turn any time soon?"

"Oh, umm…." Alex looked ahead, then nodded. "Up there by the McDonald's. Turn right there."

"Okay." Max moved over to the right lane. _Justin had better be treating her right, or I'm going to kick his ass from here to New York and back. It'd be better if she left him, though. _

Tutor reached over and put a hand on Max's leg, and he put one hand on top of hers squeezed lightly. Quietly, she asked him, "Are you okay? You seem kind of distracted."

He took his hand from hers to make the turn, said, "Yeah, I'm okay. I'm just busy driving." She looked a little disbelieving at that, but didn't say anything, instead turning back to talk with Alex and Theresa more.

"Do you know whether you're having a boy or a girl?" Tutor asked.

Alex shook her head. "We don't want to know in advance. We're going to let it be a surprise," she said smiling. "Well… Justin wanted to know, but I argued him out of it."

"Good," Theresa said, smiling at Alex. "We didn't find out about any of you in advance. I wanted it that way, but your father wanted to know, so we'd know whether to get boys' or girls' clothes." She rolled her eyes, said, "Like there wouldn't be any time for that once the baby was born. I think he just wanted to be able to get things on sale when he could. You know your father and money."

Alex and Max both laughed and nodded at that. Tutor smiled, more from seeing Max happy than from the comment itself.

* * *

"Oh, Justin - I left my purse down in your car. Would you get it for me, please?" Lexie shot him a smile, and Justin found himself nodding automatically, just as he would for any request from Alex.

"I'll be right back with it," he said aloud, and left the hotel room. He definitely didn't envy Lexie having to share a room with Mom and Dad. She hadn't been having as much success with her part of the art and design business in New York as Alex had out here, so she didn't want to spring for her own room, but still…. _The whole setup is kind of crazy, but it's easier than trying to get false ID for Lexie. _They'd settled on _both_ of them working as Alex Russo, claiming that 'she' was doing business in both New York and San Francisco. On paper, Miranda was managing Alex's business in New York, but in practice, Alex and Lexie each operated their own, and kept their own profits, while Justin did the tax paperwork for them. So far, it seemed like it was going to work out. _I just hope we never get audited. _That_ would be a mess._

He went to the stairs and started down them at a quick clip, grabbing the railing to help him turn around at the bottom of the flight - and almost ran into someone coming up. "Oh! Sorry," he said, grabbing the man's shoulder to help steady him, and then blinked as he saw that it was Max.


	7. Chapter 7

For a moment, the brothers just looked at each other. Justin opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word out, Max pulled away from him, jerking his shoulder from under Justin's hand and taking a step back down the stairs. As he stepped back, Max pulled out his wand and leveled it at Justin, glaring at him. "Don't touch me," Max said, his voice cold and hard in a way Justin had never heard from him before.

"Max… it's okay." Justin took a step back as well and raised his hands as he did, holding them palms out at the level of his chest. "I'm not going to hurt you. I don't _want_ to hurt you. Even if I did," he said, dropping his voice to just above a whisper, "I don't have powers any more. I'm no possible threat to you."

Max kept his wand up, shifted down another step. He licked his lips, swallowed. "I don't care," Max said then. "Just… just stay back. I don't trust you."

"It's me, Max. I'm not him. You know me - I'd never hurt anybody. Especially you, or Alex, or Mom and Dad -"

"I don't know that any more," Max said, shaking his head. "I don't know who you are."

Justin blinked, then tried again. "Max, _please_. I know what you remember. I remember it too." Justin swallowed, said, "I wake up at night, shaking from remembering it. He… he was a monster. But _I'm_ _not him_."

"I remember all right," Max answered. "I remember promises. I remember excuses. I remember _lies_. He sounded just like you. He had an answer for everything too. And when he didn't -" He stopped, shook his head quickly, then raised the wand again. "_Nex -_" Max intoned, and Justin lunged forward, grabbed Max's forearm and pushed up, at the same time clamping his hand over his younger brother's mouth.

They both fell down onto the stairs, and Justin grunted in pain as the edge of a step struck him in the ribs. Max tried to turn his head away, to get his mouth free of Justin's hand, but Justin held on with everything he had, squeezing Max's wrist as hard as he could at the same time, trying to get him to drop the wand. "I'm not going to hurt you," he said, "but I can't let you -"

"STOP IT!" They both looked at the yell, to see Tutor standing at the bottom of the stairs, carrying a toiletry bag. "What are you two _doing_?"

Both the brothers froze for a moment, looking first down at Tutor, then at each other. Blushing, Max let go of his wand. It clattered on the stairs, bouncing down a few steps, and with it safely out of reach, Justin released Max's mouth and wrist. "It's... it's nothing," Max said.

Justin sagged a little with relief, said, "It was just… a misunderstanding. Max is… still very tense."

"Yeah," Max said, nodding. Tutor came up the stairs to them, then took Max's hand and helped him up, looking concerned.

"Are you okay?" she asked him, and Justin's mouth twisted a little. _Is _he_ okay? He's not the one who just had a wand pointed at him. _A black feeling arose with the thought, but Justin closed his eyes for a moment and stomped on it. _No. This isn't about me. Max is the one who's been hurt here._

Getting to his feet, Justin moved back up a step. "I didn't know you'd be coming up this way," he said. "I was just going down to get Lexie's purse - she left it in the car." He paused a moment, and Max and Tutor both looked at him.

"Max… I'm sorry. If I could undo the things he did, believe me, I would." Max didn't say anything, but turned away from Justin again. Tutor gave him a pleading look, and Justin grimaced, but nodded, then moved past the two of them, going down the stairs, staying as far from Max as he could while passing.

Justin hurried the rest of the way down the stairs, taking them two at a time, then jogged out to the car. Once there, he stopped and put his forearms against the roof of it and leaned over, putting his forehead against his palms. Closing his eyes, he breathed in and out slowly, fighting the shaky feeling that had been threatening to well up all the way down from his confrontation with Max. _He was casting on me. If Tutor hadn't shown up right then, he would have gotten his mouth free eventually, then cast something. And there was nothing I could have done about it._

He lifted his head, opened his eyes, looked up into the sky. There were clouds, but Justin simply stared into the distance, breathed in and out until he felt himself starting to calm.

* * *

Justin and Max managed to avoid each other for the next two days. Neither of them spoke about their confrontation on the stairs. On the one hand, Justin was glad to avoid the drama that would have caused, but on the other, he had a feeling that things weren't getting any better.

Not only that, but everyone seemed to be walking on eggshells around him, and, he guessed, probably around Max as well. He guessed that Tutor had told at least some of them that she'd found the two of them fighting. _Probably not Alex, since she'd have no problem asking me what the hell was up. Or maybe she didn't tell anyone, and I'm just imagining it._

Because of all those things, going back to school on Monday was actually somewhat of a relief - it was good to be away from the rest of the family for a reason _besides_ staying away from Max, and his classes gave him something else to focus on. Marie smiling at him and watching him all through class was a bit embarrassing, now that he knew she had a crush on him, but it was kind of cute in a way as well, and when she left as soon as class ended, he felt vaguely disappointed.

With the end of the quarter nearing, Justin had his own papers to write and exams to study for, and he went to the engineering library, got a Kindle from the circulation desk, and found a spot to set up his laptop and work. He spent a couple of hours there - the rest of the family had gone over to San Francisco to sightsee, and weren't going to be back until late - and then went home.

_

* * *

Bill, credit card offer, junk, junk, occupant junk…._ Justin tore everything but the bill in half, set the bill on the table by the door, threw the rest in the trash. He leaned his attache case against the side of the futon and took off his shoes, saying "Alex?" as he did. There was no answer, and he went to the door of Alex's studio, opened it quietly - sometimes she got very focused on what she was doing - but she wasn't there either.

_Either not back yet, or…_. Justin padded to the bedroom door. It wasn't quite closed, and he pushed lightly, then smiled as he saw her asleep in the dark room, laying on her side facing toward the door. He stood and watched her for a few moments, just looking at her, then padded over, brushed her hair back, then kissed her temple. She smiled in her sleep, brushed his hand over her hair again, gave her another kiss.

She stirred a little, stretched, opened her eyes to reveal her dark brown orbs, looked up at him, then smiled. "Hi," she said, then rose a little to meet Justin's lips with hers as he bent to kiss her. "Mmm… how was your day?"

"It was okay." Justin stroked her hair again, gave her another kiss. "The usual. Got the first draft of my paper for theories of computation done. How'd things go with the family?"

"Oh, God. Mom and Dad argued the whole time." She covered her eyes, stretched, then sat up. Justin crouched down beside the bed, took her hand and started to stroke it. "Nothing serious, just their usual bickering, but I'm _so_ tired of it."

"Sorry you had to deal with that." Justin shook his head a little. "At least it's only for a few days, though."

"Yeah," she said, her tone lightly sarcastic. She stopped, looked over Justin's shoulder for a moment, then reached and ran her fingers through his hair. "I'm glad you're home. I missed you today."

"I missed you too." Justin leaned in to kiss her again, and she smiled widely… and then started laughing. He frowned, smiling in spite of his confusion as she laughed, and asked, "What's so funny?"


	8. Chapter 8

There was movement behind her, then, on the other side of the bed, and Justin shaded his eyes as the bedside lamp was clicked on. With the light, though, he could see her hair better, and instantly knew what had been funny. Justin sighed as he shook his head. "Lexie... why did you let me think you were Alex?"

"Duh. Because it's _funny_!" Lexie managed to get out, while on the other side of the bed, Alex nodded.

"She's right. It _is_ kind of funny." Grinning, Alex reached out and took Justin's hand, pulled him forward. He moved with it, crawling onto the bed between the girls. "And kind of cute, watching you be all lovey."

Lexie leaned into Justin's side, putting her head on his shoulder, tilting it back to look up at him and smile. "Did you really miss me that much, Justin-bear?" she asked, batting her eyelashes at him, then giggling.

Alex picked up a pillow and swung it into Lexie's back. "I do _not_ call him that!" She pulled back for another swing, and Lexie ducked around behind Justin, using him as a shield.

"Ah! Sure you don't," she teased. "What does he call you? Alexy-love? Baby-doodles?" Alex lunged to the side and swung again, and this time both Lexie and Justin moved, so Lexie was hit. "You wouldn't be so mad if it wasn't true!" she mocked, rolling off of the bed.

As Alex followed, part of Justin's brain noted that both of them were in their underwear, which gave him quite a good vantage to notice the changes that pregnancy had made so far in Alex's body. The difference in their bellies was only slight, but it appeared that Alex had grown two cup sizes, if Justin was guessing correctly. It was a bit hard to tell, as her motion in chasing Lexie was causing her to bounce quite a bit at the moment.

"You take that back!" Alex was calling out now as Lexie ran into the living room, laughing. Chuckling himself, Justin got back off the bed and followed them as Alex again called out, saying, "Justin! Help me catch her!"

He shook his head, said "No, I don't think I'll -" Lexie turned around, ducking under the pillow as Alex swung it again.

"Protect me!" she called out to Justin, trying to run behind him, but he put out an arm and caught her, swung her around back toward Alex.

"- let her get away," he finished, and Lexie let out a something between a yelp and a laugh as Alex hit her in the face with the pillow, then did it again.

"Okay, okay! I take it back!" Alex stopped then, and Lexie relaxed. After a moment, Justin did too, letting go of her. All three of them were smiling, Justin shaking his head as he did.

"So how long have you two been here? And did you _plan_ this surprise for me, or was this just a spur-of-the-moment thing?"

"Spur-of-the-moment," Alex said, even as Lexie said, "Planned." The two girls looked at each other, then said them again, this time reversed.

"Uh-huh," Justin said dryly, trying to keep a grin off his face and failing. "Well, maybe I should -" He was cut off then as both girls rushed him, grabbing him by the arms and pulling him back into the bedroom, then pulling him down onto the bed, each holding onto an arm.

"He wants to punish us," Lexie said, looking over him at Alex. "Are we going to let him do that?"

Alex looked thoughtful. "It _has_ been a while since I had a good spanking..."

"Do that on your own time. _I _don't want to get spanked."

"Okay, well... I guess not, then. What should we do with him?"

"With you two sounding the same, this sounds like a Gollum conversation," Justin put in, and Alex grinned wickedly.

"Well then... what has it gots in its pocketses?" she asked, and slid her hand into Justin's pocket, groping. "Bananas, or is it just happy to see us?"

"Oh God, he's making you a geek too," Lexie said, her eyes widening in mock horror. Then she grinned again, said, "We should punish him for a change. How about we tie his hands to the bedposts, then make out on top of him?"

Alex raised an eyebrow, asked, "How is this punishing him?"

"Because he can watch," Lexie said, grinning, "but he won't be able to touch us. Or himself. It'll be like torture."

"I see…." Alex grinned as well, then hopped off the bed, reached under it and pulled out a box, set it on the bed. "Handcuffs are in here somewhere… oh, here!" She pulled out two pairs, handed one to Lexie, then grabbed Justin's wrist and cuffed him, pulled his hand up by the bedpost and closed the cuff on the other end around it.

"Help! Help!" Justin said, but not very loudly and with a smile.

Laying her hand on his mouth, Alex said, "Shush, you," and looked across him at Lexie as she cuffed his other hand.

Still grinning, Justin watched as the two girls got back onto the bed, each on opposite sides of him. They were both on all fours, and he licked his lips as they approached each other. Alex's breasts wobbled under her as she moved, and Justin looked at them for a moment, then back to their faces, coming together now, Alex and Lexie looking at each other.

They paused, inches from each other, and Justin held still, not wanting to distract them from each other. He was surprised that Alex moved first, tilting her head to the side as she moved in to kiss Lexie - and then surprised again when Lexie turned her head to the side and ducked it down, then pulled back, away from Alex.

"Lexie?" Alex and Justin both said. Justin stopped, but Alex went on, saying, "Are you okay?"

She sat down on the edge of the bed, turned away from them, and reached up to wipe at her eyes. "I… I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd really want to, and then I thought I'd go through with it, since it was my idea, but…."

"Hey…." Alex crawled across Justin's legs and moved to Lexie, sat beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders. "If you don't want to, it's okay. You know that." Justin frowned, worried about Lexie and wanting to move to her as well, but not wanting to interrupt them to get uncuffed.

"I know. And… I kind of want to. But -" She stopped, shook her head.

"Lexie… I know it's been a while, but I'm still okay with it. And Justin is too." Alex shot a 'say yes' glance at him over her shoulder, but he was already speaking.

"Of course I am. And if you don't want to - Lexie, you know you don't have to. We're not going to be mad at you or anything. You're our sister regardless of that. We love you regardless of that."

"I know, I know. I just… it's always been so easy with you two before. But…." Lexie paused, then turned around to face both of them. "This isn't how I wanted to tell you guys, but I've got a girlfriend now."

"You do?" Alex smiled and moved up against Lexie again, hugged her tightly. "That's great!"

"Thanks," Lexie said, returning the hug. "Sorry. It just… I meant to just come over tonight, sleep over, tell you about it. But we started acting like we used to, and it was so easy… but I can't. It'd be cheating on her." She turned a hand, palm up. "Sorry."

"Oh, don't be silly," Alex said. "There's nothing for you to be sorry for." She took Lexie's hands in hers, said, "So, tell us about her. What's her name? How did you two meet?"

"Umm… I'd like to hear all that too," Justin said, then shook his hands, jingling the chains of the cuffs. "But can I get uncuffed first?"

Alex and Lexie both looked at him and said, "No," then grinned at each other as Justin rolled his eyes.

Lexie said, "I've been wanting to tell you this, but I haven't been sure how to break it to you…."

"How to break it to us?" Alex put a hand on one of Lexie's, squeezed and smiled at her. "What are you talking about? Yeah, sure, we like having you with us sometimes, but that's always been as much for you as for us. If you've found somebody you're happy with, then we're happy for you. Right?"

"Sure," Justin said, "but I'd be happier out of these cuffs."

The girls ignored that. "Thanks," Lexie said with a smile, then closed her eyes for a moment, as if preparing herself. "It's Gigi," she let out in a rush. Silence stretched for long seconds, and Lexie opened her eyes again, took in Alex's startled expression. More seconds went by as Alex simply stared at Lexie, until finally, Lexie said, "Say _something_!"


	9. Chapter 9

"You're joking, right? Please tell me this is some kind of prank." Alex looked straight at Lexie, and Lexie shook her head. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Alex was speaking again. "How - why - "

She shook her head, still obviously disbelieving, and Lexie said, "I _know_. I have a hard time believing it too, sometimes - but she's not the same girl she was back in school. She's -"

"What? She's _nice_ now?" Alex drew back from Lexie on the bed, folded her arms and scowled at her. "She's been nice before. Remember when she was all nice to Harper, because she wanted to have her at that 'biggest loser' party thing? I don't trust her."

Lexie nodded. "I remember. And I didn't trust her at first either. But… it's been almost six months now since I met her again, and we've been spending a lot of time together the last three, and -"

"Wait… six months?" Alex frowned. "You were seeing her before we left?"

"Yes," Lexie said, nodding. "I couldn't just not have a life because you were still there, you know! And at first, we were just friendly, and then when we started feeling more…." She waved her hand in the air vaguely, then went on. "It was right before the wizard competition, and I didn't want to tell you then. And then there was the whole thing with you and Justin's secret coming out, and then you were over here, and I didn't want to tell you on the phone, or in email, and -"

Alex drew back farther, and Lexie sighed, then looked to Justin. "Justin, please, help me out here…."

"Kind of tied up here," Justin said, rattling the chains of the handcuffs against the bedposts. "Could you let me loose first?"

"Wait, what - you're on _her_ side?" Alex said, whipping her head around to glare at Justin as well.

"I'm not on anybody's side," Justin said. "But it's Lexie's life. Sure, she might be wrong - but isn't that her mistake to make?"

"Not when Gigi thinks it's _me_ she's dating! Or have you told her about there being two of us?"

Lexie rolled her eyes. "Yeah… that's _such_ an easy thing to bring up in conversation. 'Oh, and by the way, I'm actually Alex's magical duplicate. The real Alex is married to Justin.' Honestly… I don't know how I'm going to break _that_ news to her. Or even _if_ I am. I mean… we're still not allowed to reveal magic to the world, right? I talked to Harper about it, and -"

"You told _Harper_ before you told _me_?" Alex semi-stood up on the bed, coming up onto her knees to glare down at Lexie as she made a frustrated "_Aahhhhrrrr!"_ at her.

"Well, yeah!" Lexie said, coming up onto her knees as well. "Because I knew _Harper_ wouldn't react like this! She actually _trusts_ my judgement!"

"Trusts _your_ judgement? Well, I guess that shows -"

"STOP IT. Both of you. Right now." They both turned and blinked in surprise at Justin. His volume had been just a little louder than normal, but his voice had carried a weight of determination and authority that he rarely used - and that both Alex and Lexie knew meant serious business.

"First, the two of you are going to uncuff me. Then the three of us are going to get dressed, go out for dinner, and have a nice, reasonable conversation about this, like normal people." He carefully didn't say 'normal adults', knowing that both would bristle at the suggestion that they weren't acting like adults. His 'authority voice' carried some weight with them, he knew, but not _that_ much. "And do you know why we're going to do that?"

Justin paused for a moment as Alex and Lexie both looked at him, then said, "_Because we are not Mom and Dad._ We can actually settle an argument without someone having to storm out of the room and the conversation having to be finished six hours later. We can have a disagreement without the neighbors calling the police. Okay?"

* * *

Half an hour later, the three of them sat down at a booth, Alex and Justin on one side, Lexie on the other. The hostess left them with assurances that their server would be by soon.

"Okay," Justin said quietly. "So, Lexie - you say Gigi's not the same any more. Tell us about her now."

"Her parents got a divorce our senior year. You were already living with Justin then," she said with a nod toward Alex, "so you probably never heard about it. Heck, I didn't hear a lot about it at the time, beyond that it was happening. Anyway, though, her dad was the one with the money, and he had some kind of ironclad pre-nup, so her mom was left with next to nothing. He got remarried right away too - he'd been having an affair - and his new wife didn't want him to have anything to do with anything from his previous marriage, Gigi included, so once she turned eighteen, he turned into a complete dick and cut her off entirely."

Alex and Justin both sat quietly, listening as Lexie continued. "She was a wreck for a little while - lost all her social status, once she didn't have money. Had to get a job working in some fast-food place, all that kind of thing. But she decided she didn't want to be like her mom, and be someone's trophy wife with no skills." Lexie reached out a hand across the table, toward Alex, and after a moment, Alex put her hand out as well, so they were touching side-to-side. "So she started working her ass off, and when I met her, she was working as an intern at a publisher I was doing some cover art for. She went out of her way to apologize to me for how she used to treat me - us?"

"And she -" Justin started, then stopped as the server arrived. He was a college-aged guy, tall with dark blond hair and a nametag that proclaimed him to be named Eric. Justin quirked a sideways smile as Eric gave Lexie what was obviously his best smile. _You're barking up the wrong tree there, guy. But I don't blame you for trying._

Justin and Alex were ready to order, having been there before, and Lexie decided to get the same thing as Alex, but in the lunch size instead of dinner. With their orders made and Eric gone, Justin finished his question. "And she told you she was gay then?"

"No, that was later," Lexie said, shaking her head. "At first, she just wanted to apologize for how she used to treat us and Harper. We got to talking about high school, and work, and all that kind of thing, and she asked me if I had a boyfriend, and I told her I was gay, but wasn't seeing anybody right then. That's when she told me she was too. She was scared to come out when we were in school, but she couldn't bring herself to fake being straight enough to have a boyfriend, and that was part of why she acted like she was too good for all the guys at our school."

"Really?" Alex said, blinking, and Lexie nodded.

"Yeah. And she had a crush on me - us - too. That was part of why she picked on us. That, and she was trying to pick on people to draw attention away from her, so people wouldn't figure out she was gay."

"Huh." Alex took a breath, then shook her head. "Well, she definitely had _me_ fooled. I never would've guessed. And I guess I could see her being a lot nicer after going through that stuff." She smiled a little, said, "Losing that kind of money must be kind of like losing magic."

Lexie laughed, said, "I guess so. I never thought of it that way, but yeah." She paused a moment, then moved her hand onto Alex's, gave her a squeeze. "How're you doing with that?"

Alex flipped her other hand up and rolled her eyes. "You know what it's like. Everything's so _slow_ to do without magic. And there's so much stuff I'd like to do, but can't. Like go back and visit you and mom and dad." Justin moved closer to Alex, put his arm around her, gave her a squeeze. She smiled in reply, turned and kissed his cheek, then leaned her head on his shoulder. "Of course, I _do_ still have Justin, so that's a yay. How about you?"

"Same thing, really." Lexie shrugged. "On my end, though, I'm still living with mom and dad. Mom's practically gleeful," she said, rolling her eyes, "not having to deal with magic all the time. Max is staying with Tutor in the wizard world like, half the time right now. Mom doesn't mind that at all, though she raises a stink if _I_ don't come home."

"That is _such_ a double standard," Alex said, nodding.

"Yeah. I think she still doesn't approve of me being gay. Not that she's said anything, but she hasn't really been warm to Gigi."

Justin frowned a little. "Well… part of that may be because it's Gigi. She may have the same worries that Alex does, and doesn't want to do a big welcoming thing, then have to do a turnabout if it doesn't work out. So she may be slow to warm up to her because of that."

He smiled a little as Lexie did the identical hand-flip and eyeroll that Alex had done a minute before. "Yeah, maybe. But I can't help comparing it to how she's treating Tutor -"

"Don't forget Tutor's part elf, though," Alex put in. "People like her whether they want to or not."

"Oh, _now_ you're going to be unreasonably reasonable?" Lexie asked, but with a smile. "Yeah, that does make sense, though. Thanks. And… since you're not yelling, I'm thinking you're okay with this now?"

"Well," Alex said, sighing a little, "I'm not sure that I trust Gigi, but I do trust _you_. And…." She sighed again, rolled her eyes, and said, "I guess I don't want to be like Max. So I hope things do work out for you. And if it does turn out to be a prank," she said with a grin, "I'll be more than happy to help you get revenge."

* * *

Alex and Lexie came out of the bathroom from brushing their teeth and both grinned at Justin, who was laying on his side, moving his foot up and down.

"Okay, now that you two are ready, can I get uncuffed?"

"I don't know," Lexie said, turning to Alex. "Should we?"

"Well… he can't hold anyone if he's cuffed, so I guess we'll have to." Alex walked around the bed, took the cuff that was on Justin's wrist, and unlocked it. She looked at the end of the cuff on the bedpost, then said, "I think I'll leave this here. That way if you act up, we can cuff you again tonight."

Justin rolled his eyes, grinned, then patted the bed beside him as Lexie climbed in from the other side. "Okay, well, climb over me and get in the middle here."

"No," Alex said, shaking her head and smiling. "Not tonight." She pointed to Lexie, said, "She wants to be in the middle tonight."

"What?" Justin rolled over to look at Lexie, who blushed and nodded.

"I… I kind of miss my big brother. I know it's weird, but -"

Smiling now, Justin gripped Lexie's forearm gently, then pulled her closer. "You don't have to explain. Our whole lives are weird. I'm used to it."

"Thanks," she said, moving into Justin's arms, her head at the level of his chest. Alex moved back around the bed, climbed in and moved against Lexie's other side. "Now, you know," she said then, "if anything happens, we'll both blame you."

"What?" Lexie frowned at Alex. "Why -"

"That's how this family works, remember?" Alex grinned back. "You blame the person nearest you. If you're in the middle -"

"I'll be nearest to both of you. Got it," Lexie said with a smile and eye-roll. "I'll live with the risk."

"Okay. Good night." Alex lifted herself up partway, leaned over Lexie to give Justin a kiss, then turned off the light and settled back down as Justin reached to pull the covers over the three of them, then put his arms back around Lexie.


	10. Chapter 10

Justin breathed in and out slowly, deeply asleep. Lexie had turned over in her sleep so that they were spooned together, with Alex the third spoon in the stack, Justin's arms loosely around both of them.

As they slept, Justin's breathing changed, becoming slightly faster, and his eyes began to jerk back and forth rapidly beneath their lids as he began a dream.

_In their parent's loft above the sub station, a seventeen-year-old Justin slipped silently from his bedroom, out into the darkened hall. Three steps brought him to his sister's door, and he opened it slowly, just wide enough for him to enter, then closed it behind him, keeping the knob turned as he did to minimize the sound._

_He walked slowly to Alex's bed, smiling at the curves of her outline under the blanket, visible in the light from her clock. Taking out his wand, he took a moment to soundproof the room, then to seal the door - not that he expected much of a struggle from her, but it was best to be safe. Erasing their parents' memories constantly was becoming tiresome._

_With that done, Justin pulled the covers down off Alex, then moved onto the bed with her, pressing himself against her. "Mmm," he said, pressing against her, his hard rod tingling slightly as it touched Alex's ass through her panties and his boxers. Justin slid his hands up across Alex's belly, onto her breasts, then cupped them, pushed them up and together as he licked the back of her neck, bit her there. She squealed and struggled against him, and he brought his arms in, pinned hers in place. _

_"Justin… don't, please…."_

_"Shut up, Alex." He rolled the two of them over, pinning Alex under his body, hooked his left hand into her pajama bottoms and panties, pulled them down with vicious force, grinning as he heard the elastic tear. "I'm feeling horny. I hope you're feeling horny too - because otherwise this is gonna hurt."_

_She squirmed under him, trying to get away, and Justin grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her back, then put one hand on the small of her back, pushing her down. With his other hand, he pulled down his boxers…._

"Justin! What are you… no! No!" Lexie tried to kick at Justin, but with him on top of her, she couldn't get any leverage. "Alex! Help me!"

Alex rolled onto her side and blinked as she awoke. "_Justin_?" She came up onto her knees, then grabbed his shoulder and pulled, trying to get him off of Lexie, succeeded in rolling him to the side. His eyes were open, but his expression was glazed, vacant. His eyes moved to Alex, no sign of recognition on his face, and he reached out a hand for her, grabbing her by the upper arm.

As he did that, Lexie, relieved of Justin's weight, moved and turned over, then smacked Justin on the cheek. "I think he's sleepwalking or something! Justin, wake up!"

Justin's grip on Alex's arm was painfully tight, but she rolled away from him, at the same time hitting his hand with her fist. His grip loosened, and she was able to pull away. "Isn't waking him a bad -" She winced and closed her eyes as Lexie slapped him again, harder, then pushed him off the bed with her leg.

"Don't _hurt_ him!" Alex said, but Lexie didn't respond as she got up on hands and knees and moved over to look down at Justin.

Lexie sighed in relief at the same time that Justin's voice came up from the floor. "Oww… okay, what am I doing on the floor?" He stood up, then looked down , blushed, turned around to pull his boxers back up. "Last thing I remember, I was dreaming that I -"

He broke off, then looked at Lexie, who was pulling her own underwear up. "Oh. Oh, God - I was dreaming I was the other Justin, and I was… I was with Alex, and - oh, Lexie, I'm so sorry. Did I -" Justin broke off again, shaking his head as he looked at Lexie, his expression concerned and apologetic.

"I'm okay," she said, moving over toward him. "Are you okay?" Alex came around the bed, moving toward him as well, and Justin stepped back from both of them, holding his hands out to keep both girls at a distance.

"I - I could have hurt you. God, I am so sorry, Lexie -"

Lexie rolled her eyes and moved closer to Justin. "It's okay. You had me scared for a minute there, but I know you didn't mean it." She paused a moment, then tilted her head and looked from Justin to Alex. "So... what happened? Does he do this a lot?"

"No," Alex said, shaking her head and looking curiously at Justin. "He's never done it before. Justin... are you okay? Is something going on?"

Justin looked into Alex's eyes. They were a little wide, a little curious - but behind that, and much deeper, was the absolute trust she had in him, and Justin closed his eyes and sighed. As much as he wanted to handle things himself, to protect her, he couldn't violate that trust. And, truth to tell, he was worried now: if he was starting to act out the dreams, what might be next?

"I... no. I'm not okay," Justin said, his eyes still closed. He took in a breath, opened his eyes, then looked at the girls. "I..."

He stopped, swallowed, then tried to move past Alex, toward the closet. She stepped into his way, putting one hand against the wall to cut him off, scowling. "You what?"

"I can't stay here," Justin said then. "I can't risk hurting you or Lexie. I'm going to -"

"To what?" Alex interrupted. "Leave us here to worry about you while you go have a pity party? No." She shook her head quickly. "We're not letting you do that. You can't leave here with both of us trying to stop you."

_Yes you can_, the voice inside Justin said. _They're no match for you without magic. They were hardly a match for you with it. _

_No,_ he answered himself. _I'd have to hurt them to do that. And I will not hurt them._ He shook his head at Alex, said, "Please don't," he said, taking another step toward the closet. "You don't understand -"

"Then _tell_ me," Alex said, moving up as well, the two of them now just a few inches apart. "How am I supposed to understand what's going on if you won't talk to me? Quit being a damn martyr and let me help you."

"Let _us_ help you," Lexie put in. "Come on, Justin. You're always there for us." She put a hand on his shoulder, moving as close behind him as Alex was in front of him. "Quit being an idiot and let us be here for you."

Justin looked over his shoulder, saw the same expression on Lexie's face as on Alex's, and knew he was beaten. Slumping a little, he said, "All right. Let's talk."

Ten minutes later, Justin was sitting on the futon, bracketed by Alex and Lexie - he'd wanted to sit opposite them, on the chair, but they'd insisted he sit with them. Holding a cup of hot tea between his hands, waiting for it to cool, Justin stared down, wondering where to begin.

"Okay, speak already," Lexie said.

"It - it's not that easy," Justin replied, but Lexie rolled her eyes.

"Yes. It's that easy. Open mouth. Make words. What is it with men and not being able to talk about emotions?"

"Tell me about it," Alex said, rolling her eyes, and Justin scowled at both of them for a moment.

"Really? This from the girl who invented the 'remember that time I apologized' trick? Or 'you know, that word that starts with 'p' that I can't say?'"

Lexie grinned quickly, said, "If you want to say, 'pussy', we're okay with it, Justin."

He scowled at Lexie again, and Alex reached a hand over his shoulders, smacked Lexie lightly on hers. "Cut it out. Ribbing him isn't going to get him to talk to us." Lexie fell silent, sitting back a little, and Alex put her hand on Justin's arm, stroked it gently. "Justin - we love you. You know that. Just talk. It doesn't matter if it's in order. If it's confusing, we'll ask questions." She smiled a little, said, "Hey, if I can understand Miranda when she's doing a full-on crying jag on the phone, I'll understand _you_ just fine."

Justin twisted a humorless smile at that, then nodded. "Okay," he said at last. "Here's the thing..."


	11. Chapter 11

"I've been having these dreams, ever since the competition. Well... more like memories, I guess, or dreams of memories..." He dropped his head down, pausing a moment, and Alex and Lexie both scooted in toward him, touching him on each side.

"What are you remembering?" one of them asked, and Justin wasn't even sure which.

"Things I did - I mean, _he_ did. He raped you. The first times, he used force. Then Max discovered it, and..." Justin lifted his head and closed his eyes as he felt tears starting to well up, had to pause and swallow. "I broke him. I broke every bone in his body, one by one. All two hundred and six, one at a time. Then I healed them all. There wasn't even -"

"Quit that," Lexie said sharply, putting her arms around Justin and squeezing fiercely. "Quit saying _I_. That wasn't you. You wouldn't ever do anything like that." Alex nodded in agreement, pressing against him from the other side, but Justin shook his head.

"That's the way it is in my head. All his memories are my memories now. I remember saying the words. I remember hearing his bones crack. I remember feeling -" Justin paused there, tears flowing now, but he made no attempt to wipe them away.

After a moment, he resumed, this time saying, "It felt good. God. In all of them, I feel so good."

"That's not you," he heard again, this time for Alex's side, felt her gentle kiss on his shoulder, her and Lexie's hands squeezing his.

"I don't know that any more. I... I have two whole lives in my head. Sometimes I catch myself starting to think like him. And it's happening more and more," Justin said, the pitch of his voice rising as he went on, "and the dreams too, and then tonight -"

He broke off and shook his head quickly, squeezed both the girls' hands. "I can't risk hurting you. Either of you. And I definitely can't risk hurting the baby. I don't know what's happening, or what might happen next. And -"

"We should talk to Uncle Kelbo," Lexie said, then frowned as Alex gave her a 'really?' look. "... or maybe Tutor," she finished. "I mean, you can't be the first wizard this ever happened to, right?"

Justin took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "I talked to Professor Crumbs about the memories, while we were still back in New York. Took the portal from the lair, since it was still working. He gave me a number to call... a wizard psychologist."

"Well, that's good. You can -" Alex started.

"I called her last week," Justin interrupted. "Thursday night, when I said I was doing research... we had our first session. I'm sorry I lied to you," he said quickly. "I just didn't want to add to the stuff you were already worried about, and -"

"It's okay," Alex said, squeezing Justin's hand, then kissing him on the cheek. "You're an idiot, and you shouldn't hide things from me, but I love you anyway."

"Thanks," he said, with a ghost of a smile. "We started working on it, but... I'll call her again tomorrow, and see if... if there's some way we can accelerate this, or if she thinks something else is going wrong. Tonight, though..."

"You are not leaving here. You are not going anywhere by yourself," Alex said.

Lexie looked to the side, tapped the black-painted steel tube that was the futon's armrest/headboard. "Why don't you sleep here? We can handcuff you to the armrest here, and then if you try to do something in your sleep, you won't be able to. I can sleep out here too, keep an eye on you -"

Alex frowned, said, "I'd rather -"

"_You_ are pregnant," Lexie said, pointing to Alex's belly. If he does wig out in his sleep, and tries to do something, it's better if he tries it on me instead of you."

"I don't think either of you should be out here with me," Justin put in. "I don't want to take a chance on hurting you either, Lexie." She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, her expression clearly showing she was going to quip, but Justin spoke over her. "_No_. That's final. You can leave the door open so you can hear me. But you're not sleeping on the futon with me."

Lowering his voice, he looked Lexie in the eyes and said, "I couldn't forgive myself if I hurt you. Please." Reluctantly, she nodded.

* * *

"Hey. You asleep?"

"No," Lexie answered. "Too worried."

"Yeah," Alex said with a small nod, looking at Lexie in the dim light of the alarm clock. "I'm laying here, trying to think of something else we can do, but... it's a magic problem, and we don't have magic any more." She sighed a little, shook her head. "And here I thought we wouldn't have these kinds of problems any more," she said heavily. "At least, not until the baby got old enough to get magic."

Lexie moved her arm under the blanket, stopped with her hand an inch or so from Alex's belly. "Umm... speaking of the baby... can I...?"

"There's not really anything to feel yet, but sure. The baby's supposed to be about orange-sized now. I should start to really gain weight soon."

"Is that what Mom says?"

Alex rolled her eyes. "Mom seems to think I should already be looking like I have a basketball there, the way she goes on. I've been reading about it."

Lexie gave her a doubtful look. "Reading about it? Like... studying? What, did Justin give you homework?"

"No," Alex answered, a little annoyed. "This... this isn't like the stupid stuff they forced on us at school. This is _important_. It's _real_." She took Lexie's hand, since Lexie hadn't touched her yet, brought it to her belly.

They were both quiet for a moment, then Lexie said, "I don't feel anything. Is the baby asleep?"

"You won't yet. It's still too small. I thought I felt something a couple of times, like a fluttering feeling, but I'm not sure."

"Oh."

Lexie looked a little disappointed, and Alex said, "It's okay. There's still almost six months left." She smiled said, "So... you ready to be an aunt?"

"I think I can handle it," Lexie said, smiling a little. Then her smile dropped, and she scooted closer to Alex, spoke even more quietly than they had been so far. "What about you? Are you ready to be a mom?"

"I... I guess I kind of have to be, don't I?" Alex blinked a couple of times. _Damn hormones. I don't need to cry right now._ "It's too late to back out now, and - I wouldn't if I could." She moved her hand to her belly, next to Lexie's. "It's my baby. Mine and Justin's. I was really scared for a while, and part of me still is... but part of me wants this so bad it hurts."

"Yeah, well... queen of conflicted feelings, that's always been us," Lexie said with a little laugh.

Alex smiled. "Yeah. But speaking of that... you know, we've never really talked about what we remember differently. I know you don't remember getting together with Justin... when did you start having feelings for girls?"

"Umm." Lexie paused a moment, thinking. "Well, we kind of-almost-sort of dated Riley, and then Dean, and there was that little thing with Ronald at Wiztech, and then Dean moved away."

_Dean moved away? Yeah, that's right, he did. But we'd already broken up then, and I was with Justin_, Alex thought, but she didn't say anything, letting Lexie continue. "After that I was really down for a while, and Harper was constantly around, trying to cheer me up. And then..."

She stopped and looked away, and in the dim light, it took Alex a minute to realize that Lexie was... blushing? Curious, Alex touched Lexie's arm. "And then... what?"

"And then, umm…." Lexie looked at Alex for a moment, then rolled her head away, looked up at that ceiling. "Then Harper and I dated."


	12. Chapter 12

Harper Beakerman sat at her kitchen table, sipping coffee and enjoying a nice, calm moment in her day. _They're rare enough right now,_ she thought. Zeke had left for his job at Evolution Robotics about fifteen minutes before, and their son was still asleep, nestled in his bed with the big teddy bear Alex and Justin had given him. Sometimes it was hard to believe that they'd been married now for almost a year and a half - or that they had a three-month old baby.

She hadn't expected to get pregnant quite so _soon_ after getting married, but it had worked out. And Matthew was a little angel - or at least, now that he wasn't waking up every two hours or so during the night, he was. Harper smiled a little._ Never thought that I'd be this grateful for coffee._

She got up and walked over to the coffee maker, then refilled her cup slowly, taking her time, stretching a little as she did. She filled the cup to about three-quarters, added a little sugar and cream - just enough to soften the taste, since she was still working on losing her pregnancy weight - and picked up the spoon to stir just as her phone rang. Taking both cup and spoon with her, she stepped back to the table, then looked down at the phone, blinked when she saw it was Alex calling.

_At seven-twenty on a Tuesday morning? I hope nothing's wrong…. _She reached for the phone with the hand that was holding the spoon, picked up the call with her pinkie, then hit speaker. "Hi, Alex," she said, sitting down and giving her coffee another stir. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm okay," Alex replied, keeping her voice low, since Lexie and Justin were both still asleep. She sat down on the edge of the futon, looking down at Justin as she asked, "How're things there?"

"Now that I'm getting some sleep again, they're great. Zeke started back to work a couple of weeks ago. I'm trying to do some designs, but it's been hard with all the interruptions." She laughed a little, took a sip of her coffee. "Getting to sleep five hours in a row feels like luxury now. I wouldn't trade it, though. Matthew is _such_ a little cutie."

She paused a moment, but Alex didn't say anything, and after a moment of silence, Harper asked, "So… not that I'm not glad you called, but isn't your family visiting this week? I thought you'd be busy with them."

"Actually, that's kind of why I'm calling." Alex pulled her legs up onto the futon, sitting cross-legged, glided her fingers across the pad in a figure-eight. "Lexie and I were talking last night, and guess what came up?"

Harper swallowed the mouthful of coffee she'd taken while Alex was speaking, then said, "What?"

"Ohh… just the little fact that you and Lexie _dated_." Harper blinked and almost dropped her cup, quickly set it down on the table, then picked up the phone and thumbed it off of speaker. Not that there was any actual reason to, but… it just felt more private that way.

"She told you that?" _Oh my God, I'm blushing. Why am I blushing? I -_

"Yes, she did," Alex said, her tone sugary-sweet as she leaned over on one arm. Behind her, Justin stirred a little, but she ignored it. "And that's _all_ she'll tell me. She says that since it involves you, she doesn't feel like she can just tell me everything. So… I know it was before you dated Zeke, so that would mean you thought she was _me_ when you were dating her?"

"Well, uh… yeah." If she'd been blushing before, Harper was sure she was beet-red now. She turned in her chair, the cup of coffee forgotten, said, "Justin had gone off to college, and then it seemed like you were avoiding me for a few months… and then you started coming around again, and you seemed _so_ down…."

Alex frowned, thinking. _That must've been right after Lexie was... born? Created? Whatever. _"Uh-huh. And… after you knew that wasn't really me, you never bothered telling me because…?" She shook her head and flipped a palm up, even though Harper couldn't see.

"Well, honestly… at first, I didn't know how much you knew. And then..." Harper took a lock of her own hair, twisted it around her finger nervously. "It was... really awkward. I didn't know how you'd feel about it, and if you already knew, I didn't need to tell you and didn't want to bring it back up, but if you didn't..." She stopped, then just said, "Awkward."

"Yeah... you know what feels awkward? _Discovering that your best friend has had sex with you, and you didn't know!_" Harper cringed from the phone at Alex's volume, while Justin blinked his eyes, woken up by it.

Lexie came out of the bedroom, wearing one of Justin's work shirts as a cover-up. She looked at Alex, muttered, "Geeze, over-dramatic much?" as Justin tried to sit up, then discovered he was still cuffed to the futon's armrest.

_If this keeps up, we're going to have to get some cuffs with longer chains_, he thought, sighing a little. Normally, a trip to the 'adult toy store' with Alex would be fun, but under the circumstances...

Three hundred and fifty miles away, Harper was still trying to stammer out her reply. "Well, it - she wasn't really you, and, umm -"

"Yeah, but you _thought_ she was me when you were doing it! And how could you -"

"_Alex!_" Harper spoke quietly, not wanting to wake Matthew up, but her tone was emphatic. "How could I? _You_ of all people would ask me that? You _married_ your _brother!_ I don't think you've got any room to -"

"No, no, that's not what I was going to say!" Alex protested. Justin cleared his throat, not wanting to interrupt, but wanting to get uncuffed. Alex ignored him, getting up and walking into the kitchen, then saying quietly. "It's just... it's... who broke up with whom?"

"What?" Harper shook her head.

Lexie came over to the futon, sat down beside Justin. "Okay," he said to her. "First, what the hell is going on? Second, _please_ uncuff me."

Smiling, Lexie held up the handcuff key - then dropped it into the breast pocket of the shirt she was wearing. Justin eyed the pocket, his face slowly turning purple, Lexie's grin growing as it did. Just when he started to reach for the pocket, she said, "I dated Harper. Alex just found out."

"You heard me," Alex was saying on the phone. "Did you break up with me, or did I break up with you?"

In her kitchen, Harper blinked. "Does it matter? It -"

"Yes," Alex sighed out, then said, "I know it shouldn't, but it does. Maybe it's the stupid hormones or something, but... please, just tell me."

Justin shook his head at Lexie, blinking in disbelief, his hand stopped halfway to her. "You dated Harper? _Dated_ dated?"

"Yeeeeaaaaah..." Lexie shook her head, then lifted her hands, palms up. "Why does everyone think this is a big deal?"

"Honestly," Harper said into the phone, "We didn't every really 'break up'. I mean... we didn't really talk about it, but I wasn't ever into it as much as you - as she was, and then Zeke asked me out, and I told Lexie he had, and she just hugged me and told me to go for it. And that was it. We did it for... two months or so, maybe. It..."

"Are you honestly asking that question," Justin asked, "or are you just trying for a reaction?"

Lexie tilted her head, considering that question, then said, "Can't it be both?"

Harper paused, took a breath, then said, "Look - you know I love you like a sister. You're my best friend. _Both_ my best friends, with you and Lexie. She was hurting, and she needed somebody, and I was lonely too, and things happened. It wasn't ever a big romance thing, it was just... comfort. And I'm sorry I never told you," she said then, "but..." Harper waved her hand in the air, said, "there's not really a good way to say, 'hey, did you know that I dated your twin, only I thought it was you?'"

"I don't know... maybe just like that? So I don't feel like an idiot when I find out?"

On the futon, Lexie rolled her eyes, said, "I guess I'm going to have to take care of this if we're ever going to have breakfast." Looking at Justin, she pointed to the pocket. He didn't move, and after a second, she sighed, fished out the key herself, then tossed it at him lightly. "Here. Make pancakes. I'll calm down Alex."

As Justin fumbled for the key and released himself, Lexie walked up to Alex and snatched the phone from her hand, then ducked away before Alex could grab it back. "Harper!" she said into it as she did. "It's Lexie. How're you?" She ducked away from another grab, not missing a beat. "How's Matthew?"

"Great now that he's not waking up every two hours," Harper answered. "Umm... is Alex really upset?"

"Honestly, I think it's just the hormones." Lexie jumped up, landing with her butt on the breakfast bar, used her free hand to swivel around and dropped down on the other side from Alex.

"_Lexie! Give me back my phone!_" Alex yelled as she ran around the counter, but Lexie ran into the bedroom, still talking, while behind them Justin shook his head and sighed.

"We'll talk to you later. I think I can handle it from here."

Harper opened her mouth to protest - but even as she did, she heard Matthew start crying. Quickly, she said, "Okay, talk to you soon. Bye," then hung up quickly.

Hearing the disconnect, Lexie kept a straight face as she hopped up onto the bed, standing on it to keep away from Alex, and said, "Oh, I love you too, sweetums." Alex jumped up after Lexie, and she ran for the end of the bed, jumped down, finished by making a big kiss into the phone, then stopped and held it back out to Alex.

Alex snatched it away, held it up to her ear. "Harper! You -" She pulled the phone back down from her ear, looked at it, then at Lexie, who was starting to laugh.

"You are getting _way_ too uptight out here - you're getting as easy to prank as Justin!"

For a moment, Alex just stared at Lexie, seething, and then she turned away from her, stomping her foot as she said, "Ahh! Mrr! Gah! _Lexie_!" She stopped then, realizing what she'd just done, and Alex and Lexie stared at each other for a good two seconds - and then both burst out laughing.


	13. Chapter 13

"Okay, so, you're gonna be back at five, right?"

Justin nodded once. "Yeah. I'm looking forward to it," he said with a smile. "I'll see you then." He gave Alex a quick kiss, started to step out and shut the door.

"What, I don't get a kiss?" Lexie said, then came up to the door, stretched up and turned her head, presenting her cheek to Justin, who chuckled, kissed her there, then left.

As the door shut, Alex looked at Lexie. "Why do you do that? I mean - not that I mind, I know you're just teasing around, but I don't really get it."

Lexie shrugged as she sat back down, used the side of her fork to cut the three-layer stack of pancakes on her plate, speared the bite and stuck it in her mouth. She chewed and swallowed as Alex sat down and did likewise, still looking at her.

"It's just the way we've always been, you know? Teasing sometimes, nice sometimes. I'm feeling nice to Justin this week." She looked at Alex over another forkful, said, "And why do I have to explain this to _you_? I mean, you should know how it is just as well as I do."

Alex nodded to that, then smiled. "Yeah. Well, anyway, finish up with breakfast. We're going to go talk to Max and Tutor before Mom and Dad get up."

"What?" Lexie blinked at Alex. "Why are we doing that?"

"Because I'm worried about Justin, and this whole memory thing. And I feel like I need to do something, because it's all my fault." Alex picked up her plate, carried it to the sink, started the hot water.

Lexie took another bite, followed it with a swallow of tea. "How's it your fault?"

"It was my stupid wish that made evil Justin." Alex put her plate under the hot water, let it soften the syrup for a moment, then started to wipe at it with her sponge. "If it wasn't for that, he wouldn't have this whole problem. So I need to find a way to help him get rid of those memories, and the only way to do that is magic. Since I don't have magic any more, that means getting Max and Tutor to help."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Lexie took her last bite, picked up her plate, glass, and silverware, walked into the kitchen, set it all by Alex, then hopped up onto the counter, sat on it and watched as Alex continued washing.

"No. But I know that talking to Max and Tutor can't make things any worse. So we're going to talk to them. Now get down from there and help me, so we can get going."

* * *

Tutor shook her head, her eyes open wide. "That's - poor Justin. Poor you." She looked at Alex, put a hand on her shoulder. "That sounds horrible."

On the other side of Tutor, Max was making a frown that was closer to a scowl. "It sounds _convenient_ to me. He can do whatever he want, as long as he pretends he's asleep. I don't think -"

"Max!" Lexie snapped, but only just before Alex did. "He told us to cuff him to the futon, and wouldn't even allow me to be in the same _room_ with him while he was asleep, he's so worried about doing something!" She waved a hand in the air, emphasizing her point. "Does that sound like he's trying to - to get away with something?"

Max's frown deepened, and he crossed his arms, looking away as he did. Alex sighed, then looked to Tutor, gave her a 'help me out here!' look and gesture. Tutor glanced at Max, saw he was still looking away, and gave Alex and Lexie a small nod.

Turning, Tutor put her hand on Max's arm. "Max, honey - I think they're right. I know you're still mad at Justin, but like Alex said, it's not his fault. The spell made him do all those things. And now he's having to deal with the memories of it, and…." She stopped, shook her head. "You didn't see the way he looked at you, after you two fought on the stair, but I did. He feels horrible about it. And _you_ can help him. And if we can remove the memories for him… then we could do it for you, too."

At that, Max turned, looked Tutor in the eyes, swallowed. "Do you… do you really think so?"

She nodded, sliding her hand down to his, then squeezing lightly. "I do. Max… if we can fix this, for you and for him… we really should."

He took a breath in, slowly let it out, then nodded. "All right. I'm in."

"Thank you," Alex said. "Both of you. So… now we look up memory spells?"

Tutor nodded. "I know some, but we really should do some digging, see if there's any ones that look like they'd be suited for this." She frowned a little, then said, "And we should talk to the doctor that Professor Crumbs sent Justin to. She really ought to know this is happening - she might have a way to help right away. Did he mention a name?"

"No, not that I remember," Alex said, frowning and shaking her head.

"Well, that's no big deal. We can pop over and ask the Professor." She stood up, smoothed her skirt. "No time like the present, I always say. Shall we go?"

"Oh, um… okay. I guess we'll see you when you get back," Alex said. "It won't take long, right?"

Tutor rolled her eyes, waved to Alex and Lexie for them to come over. "Oh, come on. It's not like you two don't know about magic already. And Crumbs loves babies - he'll want to ask you all about how you're doing." Max took out his wand, said, "_To WizTech we've got to go, so we can help our bro, so take us there and don't be slow!_"

* * *

"Professor Crumbs. Thank you for seeing us." Tutor took her skirt on both sides and did a little curtsey to him, which he returned with a shallow bow. They'd arrived at class change time, but other than the little matter of having to thread their way through the crowd of students in the halls, that had worked out well - Crumbs had just come out of a meeting, and was free to see them right away.

"Of course. Always a pleasure to see you, Tutor. And I see you've brought friends. Max, good to see you," he said with a bow of his head. "Alex, Alex, good to see both of you."

"She's Lexie," Alex supplied, "it makes things easier." Lexie opened her mouth to protest, but Crumbs spoke first.

"Nonsense. In six hundred years of teaching, you think I haven't had to deal with this before? I never confuse one student for another." He glanced to Max, said, "Isn't that right, Matt?"

Max gave him a doubtful look, said, "Uhh..."

"That was a joke," Crumbs said mildly. "You are supposed to laugh."

"Ha. Ha-ha," Lexie said. "We'd love to joke around with you, Professor, but we're here about something serious -"

"There is always time to be polite. And when there is not, that is what time travel spells are for." Crumbs turned to Alex, took her hand and smiled at her. "It appears that pregnancy agrees with you, my dear. You are simply glowing. Have you started on readying your nursery yet?"

Alex smiled politely. "Thank you. We haven't really had a chance yet, since we just moved. But sir... we're here about Justin."

"I see." He nodded, said, "I presume there is a magical problem, if you have come to me. So, what seems to be the trouble?"

"Umm... you know that problem he was having," Alex asked, "with having the memories from... from the other Justin?"

"Yes, I'm familiar with it," Crumbs answered with a nod. "Indeed, I recommended to him a specialist in the area."

"It's getting worse," Lexie put in. "Last night, when he was asleep... he started acting out a dream he was having, where he was that Justin. He, umm... I was staying with them, and he tried to -"

She cut off as Crumbs gave her a sympathetic look and raised a hand. "I believe I understand. Further details are unnecessary. I trust no harm came of it?" Alex and Lexie both nodded, and Crumbs nodded in return, then continued. "You did the right thing by coming to me. This is very serious. Where is Justin now?"

Alex blinked. _Very serious? This doesn't sound good._ "He's at the university. He's got a class there at eleven, and another at three. He... is he in any danger?"

"Yes, he is. Get to him as soon as you can, and bring him back here. Be aware that he may try to resist." Crumbs turned to go, but Alex grabbed his sleeve.

"What's happening? Why would he try to resist?" she pressed.

Crumbs turned back to Alex, looked her up and down, then said, "If he is beginning to act out his dreams, then it is quite likely that more than simply memories survived from the other reality. The other Justin's spirit may have come across, and be trying to possess your Justin."


	14. Chapter 14

"He's _here?_" Max cried out - and before anyone else could say anything, he'd circled his wand tip in the air and was gone.

"Max!" Tutor called out, reaching for where he'd just been. "Oh, no. We've got to go after him! Quick!" She reached out a hand to Alex, since she was closest, and Alex grabbed Tutor's hand and one of Lexie's.

Tutor looked to Alex, said, "You're going to have to be pilot for this one, since I don't know where we're going. Focus on where you think Justin -"

"Got it," Alex said impatiently, nodding. "Not my first teleport. Now go!"

Tutor repeated the motion Max had made, and the three of them vanished from Crumbs' office as well.

* * *

After his first class was over, Justin decided not to follow his usual practice and go to his office to work - he didn't have office hours right now, and if he went there, there was a good chance someone would interrupt. Namely, Marie, who he really didn't want to see right now.

Instead, he went up to the fourth floor, found an empty conference room there, took a chair, and after a few minutes was happily typing away on his laptop. He'd written four paragraphs, and was pulling up Google to check details on a reference, when an all-too-familiar voice said, "Oh, Mister Russo! I'm _so_ glad I found you!"

He closed his eyes for a moment in annoyance, but managed to hold back the sigh he felt and make at least an imitation smile. "Marie. How can I help you?" he asked, hoping to get this over with as quickly as possible.

That hope was dashed as she sat down in the chair to his left. She didn't go to pull anything out of her backpack, instead simply setting it on the floor, and that was encouraging, at least. Then she blushed a little. "Well... actually, I don't need any help with anything right now. I just saw you in here as I was walking by, and I thought it might be nice to talk..."

"I've got work I need to do right now," Justin said politely. "Can't really take time out to chat right now."

"Oh. Well..." She reached and layed a hand on Justin's arm, and he blinked as the touch seemed almost like it was tingling. Tilting her head a little, Marie looked into Justin's grey-green eyes with her clear blue ones, then gave him a little smile. "That's too bad. I'd really like to get to -"

"Justin," a voice said, and his eyes snapped over to the door Max was there, closing it behind himself, wearing a grim expression that seemed completely out of place on him.

Immediately, Justin stood up, closing his laptop as he did. "Max - what are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

Max pulled out his wand with a smooth motion, held it out toward Justin. "Yeah. Tell me something, Justin. Who were you talking to just now?"

"What?" Justin blinked, gestured back at Marie. "Max, this is Marie, one of the students from -"

"Justin," Max interrupted, shaking his head. "There's no one in that chair."

For a moment, Justin stared at his little brother, his mouth hanging open. Then he looked at the chair again - and it was empty. "But she was just -" He turned back to Max, said, "Did you do something to her?"

Max shook his head slowly. "There wasn't anyone in that chair when I came in. Justin... you need to come with me."

"No. I don't know what you're trying to pull, Max, but Marie's been in my class all semester. She's real. Now tell me what you did with her, or -"

"Or what?" Max raised his wand between them, and the tip began to glow. "What are you going to do?"

"I'll get in touch with Tootietootie, and tell him you're acting crazy. Max - put down your wand."

Max began to circle around the conference table, moving to his left, so he'd come toward Justin's right, knowing Justin was left-handed. "I'm crazy? You're the one talking to people who aren't there, bro."

* * *

"Not at the food court, not at his office, not at the library..." Alex shook her head. "I don't know where they are. Can't you cast some kind of spell to find him?"

Tutor shook his head. "We'd need something connected to him. Hair, nails, blood, even his clothes... oh! We could go back to your apartment and -"

"_Hello_," Lexie interrupted. "Connected to him?" She waved a hand at Alex's midsection, said, "His sister? His baby? And hell, knowing the way these two carry on, she's probably got his sp -"

Alex clapped a hand over Lexie's mouth. Lexie looked surprised, then glared, while Tutor nodded. "Yes - that should work." She put a hand on Alex's belly, said, "_Blood calls to blood, that is true, so, show me where to find Justin Russo._" She stared off at something Alex and Lexie couldn't see, then blanched. "Oh... oh my - grab my hand!" she called out, already starting the teleport spell even as she said it.

* * *

"_No._ No more mind games, Justin. I'm stopping this here." Max and Justin had both moved, but in a way that kept the conference table between them. Max flicked his wrist, the tip of his wand lighting again. Justin moved immediately, trying to scramble over the table toward Max, but the younger Russo stepped to the side and used his free hand to pull a chair into the way even as he cast. "_What's in Justin shouldn't be, expel it from him so he can be free!_"

A tiny ball of light zipped from wand-tip to Justin's head - and then a flash of blue light washed over the room, accompanied by a wave of force that knocked both brothers from their feet.

Max was the first to start standing up, grabbing the edge of the table to do so. Then something pushed at his shoulder, knocking him back down, and he let out a startled "Ah!"

Tutor, Alex, and Lexie appeared at the far side of the room - and all three gasped as they saw Justin stomp on Max's arm, then stoop and grab Max's wand from his hand. "Thanks for that," he said - and then _another_ Justin stood up, holding onto the edge of the table as Max had, and froze in shock as he looked at himself.


	15. Chapter 15

For a second, everyone was frozen in place. Justin, looking at his double standing over Max. Max, gasping the pain of his broken arm. Tutor, staring at Max in shock. Alex, eyes open wide, looking at the Justin who was standing over Max, at his expression - that smugly self-satisfied grin of Justin's that she knew so well, but different, with an edge of sadistic glee that was so out of place on Justin's face as to be startling. Lexie was blinking, not sure where to look.

The first to move was Justin's double. He stepped off of Max's arm, stooping as he did, produced Justin's keys from his pocket, then dragged the edge of one across the broken arm, pressing with enough force to tear the skin, drawing blood. "_Ex minuo, ego confero potentia frater,_" he said, and threads of light rose from the wound into his hand.

"_No!_" Tutor raised her wand, slashed through the air with it, and Justin's double flew through the air, slammed into the wall hard enough to dent the sheetrock. Even as he fell, though, he called out "_Fulgur!_" and a bolt of lightning flashed from the end of Max's wand.

Tutor fell, without even a scream. Justin whirled and charged his double, knocking him into the wall with his shoulder, leaving another dent. He locked his arms around the double, growling wordlessly - but the double only laughed, then disappeared, leaving Justin to fall down again.

He sprang back up to his feet and whirled, but the double was gone completely, not somewhere else in the room. Immediately, he moved to Max, said, "Check Tutor," without even looking in that direction. Max's eyes looked glazed over, but he was breathing, his pulse strong.

"Justin! She's not breathing!" Alex and Lexie were both down on their knees by Tutor, both looking toward Justin. He got back to his feet, half-ran around the conference table.

"Call 911," he said as he ran, and Alex pulled out her phone, pressed buttons. She started to look back up, but even as she was opening her mouth, Justin said, "Lightning fried it. Go three doors down to the left. There's a lounge there with a snack machine - there's a phone in it."

"Got it," Alex said, getting up as Justin put his fingers against Tutor's neck, checked for a pulse. Not finding one, he looked to Lexie. "Max is in shock. Get his legs up and keep an eye on him." Taking a deep breath, Justin put his hands together on Tutor's chest and began to push down rhythmically, counting time as he did.

At one minute, eighteen seconds, Alex came back in. "An ambulance is on the way. How bad is -" She stopped then, seeing Justin doing CPR on Tutor. "Oh."

"Go down to the first floor," Justin said, not stopping. "There's an automated defibrillator in the lobby. Bring it up."

Alex nodded, then said, "Okay," realizing Justin probably couldn't see her nod. She took off down the hall, running, looking for an elevator or stairs.

By the time she was back, Max was conscious, but Lexie was sitting by him, keeping him from moving. Alex brought the bag with the defibrillator to Justin, set it on the floor, unzipped it without being told. "All right," Justin said. "We need to get her chest uncovered." He ripped open Tutor's shirt, put his hands on her back and lifted. "Pull it off, then get her bra."

Alex nodded, and in a few seconds, Tutor was naked from the waist up. There were branching red marks across the side of her chest, and Justin looked at them for a moment, nodding to himself at the way they curved around her side. _If it went across her skin rather than through her, that's good. Keep hoping_. Justin laid her back down, said, "You saw how I was compressing her chest?"

"Yeah," Alex said, nodding.

"I need you to do that while I get the pads on her. Press hard - it's better that we break a rib than that her blood doesn't circulate." Alex nodded again, took a deep breath, then got on her knees, leaned over onto Tutor the way Justin had, and began to thrust downward.

Justin took the pads, unwrapped them from their plastic, unfolded them and put them onto Tutor. Quickly, he double-checked the placement, then tapped Alex on the shoulder, said, "Okay, stop and move back." Once she was clear, he hit the _ANALYZE_ button, then held his breath. A few moments later, _SHOCK ADVISED _came up on the screen, and Justin breathed easier. _She's got a shockable rhythm, then. Thank God._

"What's happening? Shouldn't you be doing something?" Max said from across the room.

"It's charging up," Justin said. Once it's ready, it'll say so… there we go," he said as the display changed to _DON'T TOUCH PATIENT. PRESS FLASHING SHOCK BUTTON._ He looked to make sure Alex wasn't touching Tutor, then pressed the button and held it down, grimaced as Tutor's torso arched slightly. Finally, _IF NO PULSE CONTINUE CPR_ showed, and Justin took a breath, held it, put his fingers to Tutor's throat - and sagged in relief as he felt a pulse.

"She's got a pulse," he let out, then looked up at Alex, took her hand, squeezed it. "Stay here," he said. "Stay with them."

"What? Justin, where are you -" He was already moving though, grabbing Tutor's wand from the floor, then jogging around the conference table, over to Max.

Max was looking over at Tutor, tears flowing, but looked up at Justin as his brother crouched beside him. "Justin… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have -"

"No time, Max," Justin said, taking his brother's hand and putting Tutor's wand into it. "I forgive you. You should still have your powers - he couldn't have taken it all, not like that…."

Max nodded. "I can still feel it. And - you don't have to ask." He closed his eyes, said, "_This power I do not wish to_ -"

"Wait," Justin said, holding a hand up. "No. I'm not taking the power."

"What?" Max blinked, shook his head. "Justin - we both know you're the better wizard. You should -"

"I can't beat him," Justin said, shaking his head. "Not like that. The power he stole from you won't last long. He's going to the magic power plant. He's going to empower himself there, take as much as he can hold."

"Wait… he can do that?" Lexie asked, and Justin nodded quickly.

"Yes. He knows how. He's going to expect me to follow him, to do the same thing. So I won't."

"Then what are you going to do?" Alex broke in. "We can't just let him go!"

"And we're not." He turned to Alex, said, "You and Max and Tutor are going to the hospital. Lexie - I need a wizard, and you're it."

"But I'm not -"

"You will be when Max gives you the power. Max?" Justin looked down to his brother, who nodded.

"_This power I do not wish to bear, so to you, Lexie, I give it's care._" Justin stood up, taking Lexie's hand, said, "All right. First stop, the Lair."

"Justin!" Alex said, and he held up a hand to Lexie to wait, turned to look at her. Alex opened her mouth as she looked into Justin's eyes from across the room, knew there was no time to say everything she wanted to. "I love you," she said. "Be careful."

Justin nodded once. "Always and forever," he said, and then he and Lexie were gone.


	16. Chapter 16

Justin was moving as soon as they appeared, moving to the shelves, frowning deeply. "Good," he muttered, "doesn't look like Max has moved anything…." More loudly, he said, "Lexie. I'm going to need the floor clear. Move the furniture, then get the rug out of the way."

"All right," she said, stepping to one corner. She looked about for a moment, then started with her wand, first sliding the chair and couch out, then the table. A quick loop of the end caused the carpet to stand on end, then roll itself up, hop over, and lean against the wall by the door.

Smiling, Lexie said, "You know what? It's _good_ to have magic again."

"Yeah, well - don't enjoy it too much. You'll have to give it back to Max when we're done," Justin said. Lexie opened her mouth to protest, and Justin raised an eyebrow, said, "If you don't, he won't be able to be with Tutor. And you won't be able to be with Gigi."

Lexie shut her mouth, looking piqued. "Hey," Justin said. "If I could change it, I would. But right now, we've got other things to worry about."

"Yeah," Lexie said with a nod, moving over and looking at the things Justin was gathering. She raised a hand, turned a bottle to see the label. "So, what are we doing?"

Justin glanced over his shoulder, saw that the floor was clear, said, "I'm going to be getting our secret weapon ready. I need you to go get Harper and Zeke. Take them to WizTech, straight to Crumbs. Tell him my evil twin is on the loose, and is going warlock."

"Warlock?" Lexie tilted her head questioningly, and Justin nodded.

"Yeah," Justin said, faking concentration on as he moved more bottles around, searching. "He'll know what it means." _From the Anglo-Saxon _wǣrloga, _oath-breaker. A wizard who violates the Council's rules. _Justin's jaw tightened and he swallowed, as he thought,_ What I'm about to be. _He said, "When he realizes I'm not coming after him, he's going to look for another way to attack us. He won't go for a direct assault - he'll try for hostages, try to force me that way."

Lexie frowned, said, "You seem really sure of what he's going to do."

"I still have all his memories. I know how he thinks. And…." Justin stopped, looked down at the floor, chewing his lip, then looked into Lexie's eyes, took her right hand in his left, squeezed. "I need you to understand this. He's not from this universe. His being here creates an unstable state. He's going to have to get to me, to do magic on me, so he can replace me. He's going to try to get me to come to him. He'll threaten all of you, and he'll say he'll leave you alone if you give me him -"

Stepping in to Justin, Lexie put her arms around him and hugged him hard. "We're not going to give you to him, Justin."

"I know that," he said, his arms slipping around Lexie. He shook his head, took a breath, then said, "Right now, until he can do the spell to replace me, we're tied together. If one of us dies, the other one does too. Lexie… if there's no other way to stop him, if what I'm going to try doesn't work… then you'll have to kill me. Do you understand me?"

"_What?_" Lexie blinked, looking up into her brother's eyes, her own wide. "Justin… I don't think I can do that."

"You have to. Lexie - I don't want you to have to, but if it's me or Alex, or Max, or you, or Mom or Dad…." He shook his head, took a breath, let it out. "Promise me."

Lexie shook her head, and her voice cracked as she said, "Justin, please - it won't come to that. Tell me it won't come to that."

_I shouldn't have asked,_ Justin thought then, looking into Lexie's shining eyes, tears threatening to start. "It won't come to that," he said. "You're right." He faked a smile, said, "What was I thinking? It's you and I. We'll beat this."

He gave Lexie a squeeze, released her, said, "Okay, so - get Harper and Zeke. Take them to Crumbs, tell him what's happening. Then go get Miranda - don't worry about exposing magic to her, just take her to Crumbs where she'll be safe. Then check on Alex, then come back here."

Lexie nodded. "I'll be back as fast as I can. Good luck."

"Good luck," Justin returned, and then turned back as Lexie disappeared. _I'm going to need it._

* * *

"Alex? What are you -"

Lexie shook her head at Harper, said, "It's Lexie. I'll explain everything later, but you and Zeke are in danger. I'm going to get you somewhere safe." She stepped closer to Harper, looked down at Matthew in her arms, said, "Well, aren't you cute?"

Opening her arms up, Lexie looked back to Harper. "I can take him while you gather stuff. It shouldn't be more than a few hours, but you might want to pack for overnight, just in case. And get stuff for Zeke too."

"Umm... no offense," Harper said, "but you're not supposed to have magic any more. So, until I know what's going on -" She took a step back, frowning.

"Oh, for God's sake. Harper, it's really me. Just this morning, Alex called because I told her about us having dated, and I got on the phone with you for a minute, and said I'd take care of things. Which I did. But right now, Justin's evil twin is on the loose, and Max is injured, so I've got the powers right now." She opened her hands out, palms up. "Do you believe it's me now?"

Harper blinked twice, then nodded. "Yeah. Nobody would make up a story like that to try to get me to come with them." She hesitated a moment, then held Matthew out, saying, "You know to support his head, right?"

"Yeah." Lexie took the baby, a little awkwardly at first, then smiled down at him as Harper ran to the bedroom and started grabbing things. "We'll go get Zeke next," Lexie called back to her, "and then I'm going to take you both to Professor Crumbs."

"Okay," Harper called back, and then came out of the bedroom, carrying an overnight bag and a diaper bag. "Wait... teleporting isn't bad for babies, is it?"

_Not nearly as bad as attacks by psycho wizards_, Lexie thought, but she said, "No - wizards do it all the time with their babies. Now... picture Zeke's office, and we'll go."

* * *

At the wizard power plant, Justin's double spun Max's wand like a twirler's baton, frowning as he did. _He should have been here by now. So he's not coming here. _He chewed his lip a little, nodded. _He knew I'd be waiting, so he's empowering himself the other way. Not that it'll do him any good. _He closed his eyes for a second, thinking. _He'll have Alex well-guarded, because he'll think I'll go for her first. The rest of the family too. The good thing about do-gooders, though, is that they can't stand for anyone they know to be hurt._ _And she doesn't know about magic, so she'll be easy to fool..._

Closing his eyes, the double pictured Miranda's office in his head, the way Justin had seen it last, and teleported.


	17. Chapter 17

In the Lair, Justin knelt down on the floor, careful not to touch any of the lines he'd drawn. _Wish I had something to pad my knees_, he thought, then chuckled at himself. _Yeah. I'm doing what I'm doing, and I'm worried about my knees. Crazy._

_All right,_ he thought then, _stop it. Time to clear your head and focus._ Putting his hands on his thighs, just above his knees, Justin closed his eyes for a moment, then breathed in and out slowly, concentrating on his breathing and his posture, clearing everything else from his head. Any sort of magic required focus to work properly, and this would be no exception.

When he felt ready, Justin opened his eyes and reached down, took the first cup and lifted it, looked at the mixture of sand and salt in it. "Powers of Earth, I name myself before you: Justin Vincenzae Pepe Russo. I give you the earth of my body, that you may know me."

He set the cup down on the floor before him, picked up the knife, then set the edge against the base of his index finger. Eyes open, Justin pushed the knife forward and down, gritting his teeth as he cut a tiny sliver of skin from his finger. As he cut, he placed the index finger of his left hand on the sliver, keeping it from falling.

The end of the cut actually hurt worse than the beginning, as he pulled the knife away and the last bit of skin more tore than cut. Justin did his best to ignore it as he dropped the piece of his skin into the cup of Earth.

* * *

The back office of the little bookstore where Miranda worked was empty. Justin's double stepped to the door and opened it, moved out into the narrow hallway, then began to walk in the direction that he knew went toward the front of the store.

There was a door ahead of him, some twelve feet ahead, and to the left was another door, which he knew opened on the bathroom. He grabbed the handle there, twisted, found it locked. A look of annoyance crossed his face, and then he gestured with his wand, and the door vanished.

The man on the toilet looked up with a shocked expression, blue eyes widening even as his hands automatically moved to cover him. "I - you - what are you -" he started, but the double barely seemed to notice as he turned his head away and started toward the forward door. Almost as an afterthought, Justin's double reached his hand back, fingers splayed, then clenched his fist.

The man stiffened, then fell off the toilet as his heart stopped. The double opened the door out into the main body of the store, not bothering to close it behind him, then called out, "Miranda? Are you here?"

* * *

Justin set the cup of Earth aside, reached for the next one, half-filled with water. "Powers of Water, I name myself before you: Justin Vincenzae Pepe Russo. I give you the water of my body, that you may know me." Setting the cup down, Justin held the hand he'd just cut over it, pinched the cut to force blood to well up. Threads of red spread into the water as his blood dripped into it.

After the first two, the next was gratifyingly easy. He lifted the cup of Air, pulled back the cling wrap that was over the top of it. "Powers of Air, I name myself before you: Justin Vincenzae Pepe Russo. I give you the air of my body, that you may know me." Justin took a deep breath, then let it out into the cup and quickly pulled the wrap back into place, trapping his breath within.

* * *

"Yeah, up front," Miranda's voice came. The double headed toward it, and after a second, she appeared at the end of the row of shelves he was following, looking down it, looking for whoever had called her.

"Justin?" she said, blinking. "What are you doing here? Did something happen with -" She stopped again, seeing his expression, said, "Are you okay?"

The double didn't bother to answer, but simply walked up to Miranda, grabbed her by the throat, and shoved her against the nearest bookshelf. "Jack!"she cried out, then brought her right arm up, moving it in a circular motion, to the inside of the double's arm, and pivoted her shoulder, forcing his arm back, getting his hand off her throat.

Continuing the move with the fluid motion of long practice, Miranda stepped in toward the double, almost against him, placing her left leg behind him, then shoved on his chest as hard as she could with her left hand. Surprised, the double fell backward, swinging in a circle as she kept a grip on his left arm.

"I don't know what's gotten into you, Justin, but _nobody_ treats me like that any more!" Miranda said, coming down on his back with her knee. "Now tell me what the hell's going on!"

* * *

Carefully, but quickly, Justin picked up the last cup, using the handle of the ceramic mug he'd chosen for this. The flame of the candle within wavered, but did not go out. "Powers of Fire, I name myself before you: Justin Vincenzae Pepe Russo. I give you the fire of my body, that you may know me." Wishing he had a different tool for this, Justin pulled out a lock of his hair with his right hand, took the knife again with his left. He had to saw a bit, and it hurt as the knife pulled on his hair before it cut, but he managed to shear off a bit of hair, then drop it into the flame.

His hair shriveled and blackened as it burned, showing little blue flames. When it was done, he took another breath, then had to fight the urge to cough at the smell. "Powers of the elements, by my name and my makings, you know me. By these, let me be bound, now and forever." Justin picked up the cup of sand and salt, poured it out over his hand, where he had cut himself, saying, "Powers of Earth, I bind myself to you."

He set that cup aside, picked up the cup of water, lifted it and swiftly drank it, grimacing a little at the tang of his blood in it. "Powers of Water, I bind myself to you."

The cup of air was next, and Justin put his mouth to the edge, used his teeth to break the wrap, sucked in the air that was in it. "Powers of Air, I bind myself to you," he said, then lifted the last cup, that of Fire.

* * *

Miranda gasped and fell forward as the double suddenly disappeared from under her. "Bitch," he snarled from behind her, and she jumped forward and to the side, helped by the fact that her right leg had already been folded under her.

Ropes skittered past her as his spell missed. _What the hell? Is this some kind of nightmare?_ Miranda thought, but she didn't let the thought stop her, instead darting over two aisles, then running toward the back of the store. She'd get to the office, lock herself in, call the police...

She blinked then as the shelf to her left suddenly slid, the far end moving across the floor of its own accord to meet the shelf opposite it, blocking her way. Miranda turned around, saw Justin standing at the still-open end of the aisle. It was either go back toward him, try to jump up and climb over one of the shelves, or stand in place, and Miranda chose to move toward him, lowering her head and charging. He stood his ground, calling out, "_Fractus tib -_"

- and then was cut off as a spray of water like a fire hose hit him, knocking him to the ground. Miranda's momentum carried her forward, and she cringed, turning her face away from the spray, but it cut off just before she would have hit it, and she went past Justin's double, used her hands to stop herself as she reached the wall.

She turned toward the water's source and blinked, even more confused as she saw what appeared to be Alex, holding a wand out toward Justin and saying, "Miranda! Come here, quick!"

* * *

Closing his eyes, Justin put his right thumb into the flame of the candle within, gritted his teeth as he held it there. It was burning, and burning, and then the flame was gone, and his thumb no longer hurt, and Justin's eyes sprang open in shock at the feeling that went through his body. When he had had the power of a wizard, stolen as it was, he had felt incredibly _alive_, filled to bursting with an energy that wanted to be used, wanted him to grasp things, to reshape them.

But this was different. There was no urgency here, no need, but a simple, abiding sense of _rightness_. Justin looked at his hand, and saw that his thumb was unburned, and even the cut on his finger had healed. A scar was there, but it was _right_ that it be there, a sign and marker of what he had given. He saw too, that the flame had gone out, and the sand and salt that had been on the floor around him were gone. "Powers of Fire, I bind myself to you," he said, then stood. In silence, he bowed to the four directions, then reached down, placed his hand on the chalk mark that formed the circle around him.

And then he hesitated. _Once I break the circle, there's no going back. I could still undo this... No. There's no time for another option. I've made my choice._ Justin Russo moved his fingers, and the circle was broken.


	18. Chapter 18

Miranda ran to Lexie, asking "What the hell's going on?" as she did.

"Later," Lexie said, reaching to grab Miranda's arm, preparing to teleport them both away - but as she did, Justin's double lurched to his feet and snarled. The floor of the bookstore ripped open as a wall of stone shot up, separating the two girls.

Lexie stumbled, pushed back by the uprising wall, and grabbed onto a bookshelf with her left hand, going up onto one foot. _One foot?_ "_Geilsjay Timesday!_" Lexie called out, grinning as she did. Everything froze around her, and Lexie shifted, her smile growing into a grin.

_I should have thought of that as soon as I got here. He can't do anything if he's -_ Lexie's thought stopped and she stared, mouth agape, as Justin's double grimaced, then moved his arm. The first movement seemed to be in slow motion, but after the first couple of inches, he was moving normally.

"Nice job," he said. "But not good enough. Not with the power I have now." He stepped forward, thrusting his wand at Lexie, called out "_Fulgur!_"

After what had happened before, however, Lexie was ready for this. She thrust her own wand forward, and the lightning arced to the tip of it, was absorbed. "_You I don't want to see, so keep away from me!_" Justin's double was thrown through the air to smash into the rear wall of the shop, falling behind the bookcases. "Miranda!" she called out, and started around the wall that the double had raised, almost ran into Miranda as she came around as well. This time, she was able to grab Miranda's hand, and then the two of them were gone.

* * *

"Kitchie-kitchie-koo!" Lexie blinked at Crumbs, who was holding little Matthew, waving fingers above his face.

"Oh, hi Miranda," Harper said, moving over to where the two of them had appeared. Miranda was already looking around everywhere, practically goggling at her surroundings, but Harper's greeting brought her out of it.

"Oh… hi, Harper." Miranda had no idea what to say next, under the circumstances, but Harper smiled at her, took her hand and looked to Lexie.

"I'll explain things here. You talk to the professor." As she said that, Crumbs was handing Matthew back to Zeke.

"I've sent emergency wizards to guard the rest of your family," Crumbs said. "We also have a team at the magic power plant, trying to undo what was done there. Your brother's double seems to have been quite thorough in his efforts, though, I'm afraid."

"Justin's got a plan. I'm sure he does. He wanted me to go back to him, once I'd made sure everyone was safe."

Crumbs nodded, said, "Then go to him. I'll be guarding here. And good luck to you, Alex."

* * *

"Oh, thank God. I was getting worried about you," Justin said when Lexie appeared. She looked down at the chalk marks on the floor, the cups there, then gave him a quizzical look. Justin shrugged, gave her a look like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "I've been doing magic."

"Wait - what? But… you don't have the power -"

"There's more than one way to do magic," Justin replied, shaking his head. "You draw on the power from the magic power plant… but the power plant had to be established somehow."

Lexie frowned, and Justin went on. "Blood magic is one method. That's how my double was able to take power from Max. When he cut Max with that key, it released power, and he was able to use that to do a spell to steal some of Max's power. Like jump-starting a car, or putting water in a pump to prime it -"

"Okay, this is all really interesting," Lexie said. As she did, she stepped toward Justin and reached for his hand, but he stepped away, pulled his hand behind his back. "But shouldn't we be doing something?"

Justin shook his head. "Once he realizes he can't get to anyone to get hostages, he'll come to me. So now, we wait." He took a breath, let it out in a sigh.

"And what? I know you've got a plan… let me in on it, already!" She stepped toward him again, and Justin moved back again. This time, Lexie frowned. "What are you doing?"

"You can't touch me right now," Justin said. "It's not -" Justin cut off, blinked, then turned toward the doors that led to the wizard world, said, "Get behind me. _Now_."

Lexie shook her head. "What -"

"_Get behind me!_" Justin repeated, stepping toward the doors, moving at an angle to put himself between them and Lexie. She opened her mouth again, then threw her hands up defensively as the door shattered, spraying shards of glass and metal across the room.

Justin did the same, ducking his head down and crossing his arms in front of his face. He lowered them in time to see his double walk in, white mist spilling forward with him as he did. "Hello," the double said to Justin. Justin returned a nod to him.

Lexie started to step forward, bringing her wand up, but Justin put a hand back to her, said, "No. Let him speak."

The double gave a smug, satisfied smile, nodded. "Smart. Keep the damage down. You know what I'm here for."

Justin nodded once. "I know. But you're not getting it."

"Really?" The double walked forward a few more steps, stopped beside a shelf, picked up a jar, hefted it in his hand and looked at it, then at Justin. "You're planning to stop me?"

"Yes." Justin stood, arms at his sides, calm and erect. The double looked him up and down, frowned, then looked at the diagram chalked on the floor, shook his head.

"I didn't think you'd do it. I guess you have more balls than I gave you credit for." He looked up then, into Justin's eyes, said, "You shouldn't have bothered, though. I've taken more than enough power to overwhelm anything you could have bargained for. Not unless you were willing to go a lot farther than I think you would."

Justin bared his teeth in a grin at his double for a moment. "Really? That's where you didn't think things through. But I'm not surprised. You don't know a thing about love." He took a step forward, said, "You think there's a limit to how far I'd go? To protect Max? To protect Alex?" Justin shook his head, said, "To protect my _child_? There's no limit to what I'd do for them. There's no lines I won't cross for them. And now it's time you found that out."

He stepped forward again, toward the double, and the double took a step back, raised his wand between them. "Stay back!" he said, but Justin ignored him, stepped forward again. The double side-stepped, moving a chair between them, turned his wand to point it at Lexie instead. "Maybe you'll die to save them, but will you let her?"

Lexie raised her own wand, licked her lips, said, "Bring it. I've beaten you twice in the competition."

The double grinned. "The competition? Oh, Lexie… this won't be anything like the competition. There aren't any rules here."

"Maybe not," Justin said then, "but there's two of us, and only one of you. Think you can fight us both?"

The double took another step back, moved his wand to point between Justin and Lexie, ready for either one. "You're bluffing. Kill me and you die too. You know that."

Justin smiled, shook his head. "What do you think I was doing while I was waiting for you? I've taken care of that problem."

The double frowned for a moment, then looked at the diagram on the floor again, and then his eyes widened. "You didn't," he said, but he swallowed. "You wouldn't have."

"Didn't we just go over this?" Justin said, shaking his head slowly. "There's nothing I wouldn't do for them. _Nothing_." He paused, then said, his voice almost kind, "It's time to give up. It's over."

"No!" The double pulled his wand upright, circled it point up in the motion to teleport. "I'll find a way!" he called out - and then stopped and looked at his wand. There was no glow on the tip, and he spat a curse, then thrust his wand at Justin, cried out "Fulgur!"

Again, nothing happened. Justin shook his head, said, "It was all over as soon as you came in here. We're linked too closely. Neither of us has magic any more."

The double snarled, tossed his wand on the floor, then dove at Justin, arms out, grabbing for him. Lexie waved her wand at him, blinked as nothing happened, and then blinked again as Justin stepped forward into his double's charge, pushing upward with his left hand, gritting his teeth as he did.

Justin's double made a strangled sound, then slowly crumpled to the floor. As he did, Justin put a hand under his arm, kept him from simply falling, lowering him carefully. Lexie ran forward, then stopped and gasped as she saw the knife sticking out of the double's chest. Justin laid his double on the floor, then pulled the knife from the wound.

"Maybe now you'll believe me," he said then, looking down into his own grey-green eyes, staring back up at him in shock. "There's nothing I wouldn't do to protect my family." And then he raised the knife to his double's throat, and pulled it across.


	19. Chapter 19

Lexie stared, mouth agape, as the double's blood spilled onto the floor of the Lair. Justin sat down heavily onto the floor, his gaze fixed on his double. After a moment, he said, "It's over. And we'll never have to do this again."

A dozen questions went through Lexie's mind, but she pushed them all aside and moved toward Justin, opening her arms to hug him. Again, he pulled back, standing up as he did, shaking his head. "You can't touch me. Not yet. It's still unstable - if you touch me, you could lose your magic - lose Max's magic."

He took a slow breath, let it out, then looked at his double's body again. "We need to get some towels or something. That's going to ruin Mom's floor."

"The floor -" Lexie shook her head. "How can you be thinking about the floor right now?"

"Because I have to," Justin answered, his voice strained. "Because if I let myself think about what I just did, I'm going to freak completely." He looked at the body for another moment, then turned, not just his head, but his whole body, forcing himself to look away. Justin reached up, put a hand to his face, and when he spoke again, he sounded tired.

"Please, do something about the blood. And then… you'll have to round everyone up, bring them here. You're not going to be able to teleport me."

Lexie frowned, opened her mouth to ask a question, but Justin shook his head. "Lexie, please. _Please_. I can't do this yet. Just get them, and give me a few minutes."

She licked her lips, then nodded, saying, "Okay. But Justin… you did what you had to. Don't beat yourself up over it."

Justin raised his head and looked up into Lexie's brown eyes. She reached a hand toward him in automatic reaction to the pain in his expression, stopped the movement before he could pull away. "Did I?" Justin shook his head a little, said, "I don't know. There's other ways I could have stopped him." He looked away from her. "I thought this was the least of all possible evils, but… I'm not sure any more. And I don't know if the Council will agree."

"Justin…." Lexie tilted her head. "That's exactly what I mean. You did the best you could. I know you. If anybody says they could have done better, they're lying, or they've got an ego that's inflated like my head was on that love potion."

She paused, watching him for a second. She didn't think he believed her yet. _We'll get him through this. We owe it to him._

* * *

"Justin!" Alex moved to him immediately, hugged him tightly. He didn't move away from her, and Lexie felt a tinge of jealousy, then annoyance at herself for feeling that.

Jerry looked around the lair, and his eyes immediately found the double's body. He looked it over, his face an expressionless mask. Kelbo was with them as well, and he looked at the body as well, wearing a serious expression that seemed completely out of place on him.

"How are Max and Tutor?" Justin asked, still holding onto Alex, and Jerry blinked, looked away from the body, then answered.

"Max'll be fine. Arm's broken and scratched, but nothing serious." He looked back to the body, then shook his head. "I… sorry. I know that's not you, but… it's not something I ever wanted to see."

Kelbo looked at his brother, then turned to Justin. "If Max weren't already at the hospital, I'd've had his arm fixed in nothing flat," he said with a smile, sounding mostly like himself.

Alex turned to look at her father and uncle, saw where both of them were looking - but before she could turn to where she'd see the double's body, Justin stepped around her, moving into the way. "Uncle Kelbo," he said, "could you take care of that? I don't think we need it here now."

Kelbo nodded. Alex tried to look over Justin's shoulder, but he moved again, and Lexie did as well, moving into the way as Kelbo waved his wand and the body disappeared.

Justin looked to Alex, squeezed her shoulder. "How's Tutor?" he asked, and Alex looked up to him, frowning a little, but answered.

"She's going to have to stay a few days, but the docs think she'll be fine. Max says thank you, and he's sorry about how he acted. Mom stayed with them, but she says to tell you she's proud of you."

Justin smiled at that, and Lexie cleared her throat, then said, "I'm going to get the others. I'll be right back." A few minutes later, she returned, this time with Harper, Zeke, Miranda, and Professor Crumbs in tow. Hugs happened all around - although Justin still wouldn't hug Lexie, or Kelbo, or Crumbs.

"All right," Justin said, nodding around to everyone, his arm around Alex. "I know you've all got a lot of questions."

"Actually," Crumbs interrupted smoothly, "they may not have as many as you think. I took the liberty of explaining a few things to your non-magical friends here."

"Yeah," Harper put in, "and Zeke and I helped with the explanations for Miranda."

"So… this is the Lair you were telling me about?" Miranda asked, looking around. Everyone nodded. She shook her head, then looked at Alex and Lexie, looked back and forth between the two of them. "And… you're the real Alex?" she asked, pointing to Alex.

"We're _both_ real, thank you," Lexie said with an annoyed expression. "But she's the original."

Miranda blushed a little, said, "Sorry. This… this is all going to take some getting used to."

Smiling, Harper dropped one hand from Matthew to pat one of Miranda's, said, "Some parts, you'll get used to fast."

"Yeah, and some you never get used to," Zeke put in. "Like, there was this one time that -"

"This is all very interesting," Crumbs interrupted, "but I am afraid I must get back to Wiztech soon. But first…." Crumbs turned to look at Justin, then drew himself up and crossed his arms. "Justin Russo, by authority of the Wizard Council, you are accused of warlockry in the first degree. How do you plead?"

"_What?_" Jerry stepped forward angrily, moving in front of Crumbs. "That wasn't him, that was his double! You should -"

"Dad," Justin said, putting a hand on his father's shoulder, "he's right. I had to, to stop him." Jerry turned and looked in disbelief as his son said, "Professor Crumbs, I plead no contest. The charge is true, but I believe there are mitigating factors that should be considered."

Crumbs nodded, arms still crossed. "State them."

"First, there are the circumstances. My double needed to be stopped as quickly as possible." Justin gestured toward Lexie, said, "I sent Lexie gather those who were at greatest risk and get them to safety, and to notify the Council, via you. However, I knew that my double would be coming for me... and therefore I had to prepare for that."

Justin crossed his own arms as he went on. "I could have empowered myself to his level, but two things kept from doing that - first, I knew that was what my double would expect, and that he expected to be able to beat me even if I did. Second, though, I knew that the Council would be looking into my actions. Empowering myself to a full wizard's powers - the _minimum_ that I would need to stand a reasonable chance - would be a gross violation of the Council's rules."

Again, Crumbs nodded. "Go on," he said mildly.

"That's number two: I violated the Council's rules, but I did so in the smallest way I could. Instead of empowering myself, I..." He paused a moment, looking for a word, then said, "I _grounded_ myself."

Crumbs raised an eyebrow at that. "Grounded yourself? Explain."

"I used a linkage ritual - binding myself to the four elements, and through them to this world." Justin raised a hand, scratched at his forehead. "I hoped that would prevent me from being destroyed along with the double."

"You _hoped_?" Lexie and Alex both said, giving Justin a look, but Crumbs held up a hand.

"I see. And were you aware of the other effects that would have?"

Justin nodded. "Yes. Like I said - I grounded myself." He quirked a sideways smile, shook his head, sighed. "And that's the final mitigating factor. I can't do magic any more. Surely the Council should consider that punishment enough?"

Alex frowned and looked up at her brother, said, "Wait - grounded? You can't do magic? You already couldn't do magic... so what are you talking about?"

Turning his head to look at Alex, Justin opened his mouth to answer, but Crumbs beat him to it. "There are other ways to gain the power to do magic, outside of those approved by the Council. Your brother employed one such means to do what he did. Now, however, he is incapable of further magic. He is, to use an analogy, a magical lightning rod - any magical power that impinges upon him is immediately absorbed and nullified. He may be able to learn to control that to a degree, but any attempt to empower him again will fail, as the energy will be absorbed."

Crumbs took a deep breath, then said, "On behalf of the Council, I judge you guilty of the crime of warlockry. Your sentence -"

"_Guilty_!" Lexie blinked and shook her head, then stepped forward, moving in front of Justin and Alex, between them and Crumbs. She still had Tutor's wand in her hand, holding it low as she glared at Crumbs. "You heard him! There wasn't anything else he could do! If you want to do anything to him, you're going to have to go through me!"

"And me," Kelbo put in, stepping sideways to join his niece. "Professor, you know Justin. He wouldn't -"

"As I was saying," Crumbs cut in, speaking more loudly, "Justin Russo, your sentence is suspended."

Lexie and Kelbo both frowned, and Crumbs went on. "Recognizing your motives, and that you chose to violate the laws to the least extent possible, the Council offers you this alternative to the normal sentence: you will accept a position with the Council. Your new abilities make you uniquely suited to combating warlocks. Should the Council have need, we will call upon you to do so."

"Wait," Alex said, shaking her head, "you're offering him a _job_?"

"A position," Crumbs said. "There is no actual pay, but -"

"No," Justin cut in. "There is pay. Or I'm not taking the position. You'll pay me a retainer, to be available for you. If you call on me, you'll pay me for my time." Crumbs raised an eyebrow, and Justin went on, saying, "You said it yourself: I'm uniquely suited to combating warlocks. The other side of that is that I'm also uniquely suited to combating _wizards_. The Council wants me on their side, but they're not getting me for free."

"Very well," Crumbs said, nodding slowly. "That can be arranged." He paused a moment, then said, "And you will need a wizard to work with. You're immune to magic, but there are many things you cannot do now." He turned his head to Lexie, said, "Alex, you will be re-empowered as a wizard." He held up his hand before anyone could object and said, "Max will receive his powers back. She will be empowered separately, but as a full wizard."

"Wait - why her? Why not me?" Alex asked. Justin leaned over to try to whisper in Alex's ear, but she pushed back at him.

"Justin may be able to learn to control his ability to absorb magic," Crumbs answered, "but his control will not be perfect. Every time the two of you touch skin-to-skin, you would run the risk of losing your powers." With a small smile, Crumbs asked, "Are you willing to give up ever touching your brother again?" Alex colored, and Crumbs nodded, said, "You need not answer that."

"Wait," Justin put in. "There's two more things."

Crumbs cocked his head to the side. "Yes?"

"First - you make Lexie a wizard under the table. No one outside the Council and us knows... and because of that, she can have a relationship with whoever she wants, mortal or not. That is not negotiable," Justin said.

"Very well," Crumbs replied with a nod. "And the other?"

"Well... right now, I can't be teleported back home. So the Council is springing for my plane ride home. On a plane going tonight."

"_Two_ tickets," Alex put in. "I've spent enough time worrying about you today."

Crumbs chuckled at that, then nodded. "Very well. Your terms are accepted."


	20. Chapter 20

Justin sat hunched forward in the vinyl-covered, padded seat as he and Alex waited at the gate. Beside him, Alex put her hand on his arm, looked at him. "Justin? Talk to me."

He shrugged, then licked his lips. "It's not even two o'clock at home," he said, and his voice was distant, almost hollow-sounding. "The longest day of my life, and it's not even two." His eyes stayed on the floor, but they were focused somewhere in the far distance, as if he were looking through the marble tile, down into the Earth itself.

"It's okay." She squeezed his arm through the sleeve. The shirt was loose on him - one of Jerry's shirts, to replace Justin's blood-stained one. "You beat him," she whispered. "Max and Tutor will be okay. The emergency wizards even got to Miranda's boss in time. He didn't manage to do anything permanent."

Justin kept staring down. "Nothing permanent?" he returned at the same volume. "Yeah, he didn't do anything permanent. I did." He closed his eyes then, shook his head slowly. "I'll never be the same again."

"You'd already lost your powers, from the competition. It's not really going to be -" She stopped as Justin turned his head and looked at her, and his eyes looked dazed, drugged.

He shook his head again, still moving slowly. "That's not even it. Alex… I looked into my own eyes and killed myself." Alex opened her mouth to speak, but Justin continued. "I'd do it again. It was the right thing to do. But God, Alex… it was the hardest thing I've ever done, and… it was the easiest. I don't know how it can be both, but it was."

Tears welled up in Justin's eyes, and Alex moved closer to him, reached to take his hand, then hesitated, bit her lip. The tears overflowed then, and Justin turned away, pulling his hand into his lap. Before he can get it there, Alex grabs for it, takes his hand and squeezes hard. "Justin… I'm sorry. I wish you didn't have to do that. I… I can't imagine what it must've been like. But I'm here. I love you." She paused a moment, then squeezed again. "Always and forever."

Justin turned back toward Alex, then squeezed back. "Thank you," he said, then shook his head. "I love you too. And I need you. I can't do this without you."

Alex swallowed, gave Justin what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "I need you too. You know that. I always have."

For a few moments they were silent, simply looking at each other. Then Justin wiped at his eyes with his hand, and Alex picked up her purse, opened it and began to dig through. After a few moments of that, with Alex frowning more and more intensely as she dug, Justin asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for a tissue, but… here." Turning back toward Justin, Alex pulled her sleeve down over her hand, then started to wipe Justin's tears away.

* * *

Two hours later, Alex moved her eyes from the clouds visible through the airplane's window to Justin. He was looking out it as well, sitting in the window seat - normally, she would have taken that seat, but this time around, she chose the aisle seat, to make getting to the bathroom easier. His eyes were moving, actually looking at the clouds, and Alex felt relieved that he wasn't in a waking daze again.

She squeezed his arm, and he turned to look at her. "Hey," he said, then moved to take her hand. Alex pulled it back, then said, "Umm… what Crumbs said, about how you touching someone could drain their powers… what about the baby?"

Justin shook his head. "He doesn't have powers yet. I can't drain energy that isn't there. And I'll have years to learn to control it before the baby does get powers."

Alex made a relieved smile, then took Justin's hand. "If you do drain someone's powers… is it permanent?"

"No," Justin said, shaking his head. "I can drain the power that's in someone, but that doesn't take away their potential. They can still be re-empowered."

"Oh." She frowned a little, said, "Then what Crumbs said about not being able to touch you if I had powers… that wasn't true?"

Justin shrugged. "It'd be… inconvenient for them, more than anything else. Right now, they'd have to keep re-empowering you all the time, until I get control of this. Even once I do have control, it'll be a conscious kind of thing. If we touched while we slept, I'd drain your powers."

Alex frowned a little, and Justin leaned over, kissed her cheek, squeezed her hand. "If you'd like the powers…." He stopped, unable to finish the sentence, but Alex shook her head.

"No. Well… yes, part of me would love to have them again. Things were so much easier with them. But… I need you more."

"Well… there are some things we can do." Justin put two fingers on Alex's arm, stroked up it slowly, squeezing her hand with his other. "There are enchanted items that will work for non-wizards. I can probably talk Crumbs into giving us a lair, a flying carpet, maybe even an IPP." Justin paused a moment, then said, "Of course, you'd have to be the one to operate them, at least until I get control over my power draining."

Alex blinked. "Do you really think he would?"

"I'm sure he would. For one thing, they'd all be useful to me in working for them."

"What about… do you think he'd let us have a wand?"

Justin frowned at that. "A wand?"

"Yeah. Even if we can't cast spells, Dad's used a wand to call Uncle Kelbo before. We could use it to keep in touch with Lexie and Max."

Justin's eyebrows went up. "I hadn't thought of that," he admitted, "but you're right. It can't hurt to ask. Being able to call Lexie would be useful. Plus the Council could use it to contact us."

Alex took a deep breath, leaned into Justin, and he put his arm around her. "That makes me feel better," she said then. "The flying carpet and IPP would be great - I really miss being able to teleport."

He kissed her on top of her head, and they were quiet for a few moments, until Alex spoke again.

"Justin… when you talked about the baby, you said 'he'. Do you know something?"

"What? Oh, no." Justin shook his head. "I'm kind of hoping for a son, but… what about you?" He shifted a little, twisted his head to see Alex's eyes. "Do you want a boy, or a girl?"

"Honestly… I just want the baby to be healthy. I'm… still kind of worried about that."

"Yeah." Justin nodded, kissed Alex's head again. "I am too."

* * *

"Max? Why aren't you at the hospital with Tutor?"

He didn't answer Alex's question right away, but walked up to Justin first, hugged him before Justin would pull away. He held on, said, "Hey, bro. Tutor kind of ordered me to be here."

Releasing Justin then, he went on. "She wanted me to give you her thank you. And… I wanted to say mine again too."

"It's okay. You're welcome. Both of you."

Max moved to Alex then, hugged her while Theresa hugged Justin. When the hugs were done, Jerry started toward baggage claim. The others started to move after him, but before they'd gone more than two steps, Max cleared his throat.

"Umm… there's something else I've got to tell you. All of you." They stopped and turned back to him, and Max smiled, said, "While you guys were gone, I asked Tutor to marry me. She said yes."

"Oh - oh my God, Max!" Alex, Lexie, and Theresa all rushed forward at once to hug him.


	21. Chapter 21

**Epilogue**

"I wish to register my continued disagreement with this decision."

"That is, of course, your privilege, Emma. Secretary Contill, please note her disagreement."

"Chancellor, I wish for more than a note." The woman who had spoken stood up and leaned forward, placing her hands flat upon the desk in front of her. "Let the record show that I believe that Professor Crumbs' actions in this matter are tainted by his emotional involvement with the Russo family. I am dismayed that the Council has permitted itself to be swayed by him. Justin Russo has freely admitted himself a warlock."

Standing fully up, she walked around the desk, out onto the floor. "He has bound himself to the Elemental Powers themselves, to those with whom traffic has been forbidden since the time of Merlin." She paused, emphasized her next words by spreading her hands. "A prohibition set in place by Merlin _himself_. We have no idea of the full ramifications of what he has done - but I am not afraid to admit that I fear the Powers this child has invoked."

She turned, addressed herself to the other side of the chamber. "The Council's judgment has been passed, over my objections, and those of seven other of my colleagues. I accept the will of the majority, but I say to you this: the Russos must be watched. The potential risks are too great."

Again, Emma paused, and this time a voice broke in. "We are very well aware of your feelings in this matter, Wizard Jinkles. Must we be subjected to another lecture?"

Chancellor Tootietootie tapped his gavel. "Professor Crumbs, please. Wizard Jinkles has the floor. You must permit her to continue."

* * *

"That was a wonderful experience." Tootietootie took off his hat, set it onto the hatrack, walked behind his desk, and sank into the polished wood of his chair.

"I presume you're exercising your skills in sarcasm," Crumbs replied as he took one of the smaller guest chairs.

Tootietootie gave Crumbs a look, then shook his head. "I don't see how you could think I could be doing otherwise. Really, Crumbs… you shouldn't have antagonized Emma. You won by two votes. _Two votes._ You don't have the margin to be pulling these kinds of stunts."

Crumbs shrugged. "To be frankly honest, the opinions of that band of fools do not concern me. They're all too spineless to take any sort of action without a dozen others to spread the blame across."

Taking off his own hat, Crumbs set it in his lap. "They can't see that we've just tripled our chances of survival. Any one of those children could be the one the prophecy refers to - but now, all three have power of some sort. Whichever one it might be, the condition is fulfilled."

Tootietootie rolled his eyes. "Really? The prophecy? You're worried about _that_ old scrap?" Shaking his head, he leaned back, then closed his eyes, put one hand to his forehead. "Crumbs, I know they're your -"

"_No_." Crumbs said emphatically. "Do not say that. Not even here." He stared at Tootietootie for a moment, until the younger man sighed and nodded. "'When the bloodline folds upon itself,' the prophecy says. Clearly it's speaking of Justin and Alex taking up with each other, and -"

"Clearly?" Tootietootie sat back up and opened his eyes. "Crumbs, _nothing_ in that thing is clear. Hells below, the earliest version we have must have been translated through half a dozen languages, and passed through dozens of scribes. Even if you're right, we don't know if it refers to one of the three, or to the child that Alex is carrying. _If _ it means anything at all, and isn't just the ramblings of some half-mad coot."

Crumbs raised an eyebrow at that, and Tootietootie colored a little. "Not that I mean to imply you're anything of the sort. But still…." He shook his head again, changed tack. "Normally, I trust your judgement of Justin. It matches my own. But he's been influenced already, and we don't know what effect what he's done now will have on him. I hope you're right. I _want_ you to be right. But I am the Chancellor of the Council, and I must prepare for if you're wrong, Crumbs." He stood, looked down at the older wizard. "It's my duty," he finished, spreading his hands.

Standing as well, Crumbs set his hat back into place, looked Tootietootie in the eyes. "We all have our duties, Chancellor. I hope that yours and mine will not set us against each other. And now - good night."

Tootietootie opened his mouth to reply, but Crumbs was gone already.

* * *

Justin Russo sat up in his bed, looked to his right. Alex was hogging the covers, as usual, but that wasn't what had awoken him. _I was sure I heard a voice…._ He swung his legs off the bed, stood up. Alex turned over at that, looked at him. "Are you okay?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Yeah. Just thirsty," Justin lied. "I'll be back in a minute."

Alex nodded with a grunt of agreement and settled back down, and Justin went out into the living room. He turned back toward the bedroom door, then closed it carefully, trying to avoid making noise.

When he turned around again, he froze in place at what he saw: silver orbs floated in the air like bubbles. There were dozens, the smallest the size of marbles, the largest beachballs, and they drifted slowly, moving seemingly at random. As they moved, they grew bigger and smaller, and sometimes one would shrink away to nothing, while elsewhere, another would appear.

Justin put his hand back to the door - and it was not there. He turned around, then turned again, realizing suddenly that he was no longer in the apartment at all. All around him were the orbs, up as well as to the sides, and he was surrounded by infinite darkness, a bare grey floor the only thing besides himself and the orbs, the light on them seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere.

"What is this?" he said aloud then. "Is someone there?" There was no answer in words, but the orbs began to move differently, and some of them began to pass through each other, making a strange ringing sound as they did, as if someone had taken the sound of a glass bell and drawn it out to last several seconds without changing the pitch.

He tried to run, then, simply running forward, since all directions seemed the same. He was moving, he could tell, but the orbs were everywhere. How long he ran, he did not know - minutes, maybe, or hours, but there was nothing but the darkness, the orbs, the grey floor, and him.

Finally, he stopped, panting, and yelled out. "Who are you? What do you want?"

The only answer was the strange sounds... and then Justin's eyes went wide as he suddenly, somehow, knew what this was, what was wanted. He swallowed, then kneeled on the floor, was completely unsurprised to find that he was within a diagram of faintly glowing lines, and a silver cup sat before him, filled with a liquid whose color matched that of the cup and the orbs.

He took the cup in both hands, lifted it. "Powers of Ether," he said, "I name myself before you: Justin Vincenzae Pepe Russo. I give you the ether of my body, that you may know me." He frowned then, not knowing what to do - and then icy cold bit into him from behind, starting between his shoulderblades and rising up swiftly through his neck, into his head. It hurt like sticking a hand against the metal wall of an industrial freezer, and Justin opened his mouth, forced air out in a soundless cry.

And then he remembered. He remembered the first day when his magic had come in - the way he'd screamed in delight and fear when he'd floated up into the air. The sense of pride and joy when his father had told him what was happening, told him that he was _special_, was a wizard, that he had powers that normal kids never would have.

Justin remembered the first time entering the lair, that day, how he'd looked everywhere, at so many things to see, how he'd fidgeted, waiting there, looked up to his father to ask permission. Jerry had smiled and told him, "Go ahead, look," and Justin had run forward, looking at everything in his eagerness - but above all else, he remembered that smile, the look of loving pride on his father's face, and how it had seemed to last all day.

And then the memory was gone, and Justin Russo found himself looking down into a orb the side of a ping-pong ball, seeming silvery like the others, but reflecting back not his own face, but his father's, wearing a smile of loving pride that Justin could no longer remember ever having seen his father wear.

And then he knew that something had been taken from him, something indescribably precious, something he could never have again - and he did not even know now what it was that had been taken. Tears streamed down his face, and fell into the cup, mixing with the silvery liquid there. Justin shut his eyes, squeezing the lids as tightly shut as he could, trying to stop the tears.

A minute or more later, he finally opened his eyes, looked down into the cup, then raised it, brought it to his mouth before he could change his mind. He tilted it back and tried to drink, but whatever was in the cup flowed not only between his lips, but _through_ them as well, through his teeth and tongue and into his body, suffusing him. In moments, the cup was empty, and Justin lowered it, breathed in and out, looked at the orbs around him. They were all still, now, hovering as if waiting.

He swallowed, took a deep breath, then let it out, saying, "Powers of Ether, I bind myself to you."

The orbs burst into motion again, moving around him, some of them moving through him, and Justin closed his eyes, wondering what he had just done...

... and then awoke. He sat up in bed, looked down to see Alex laying there, asleep as before. _Was that a dream? _He slipped off the bed, opened the door, looked out into their living room, found it as normal as it had ever been.

"Justin?" Alex said, and he shut the door again, came back to the bed, slid in next to her, putting his arms around her.

"I thought I heard something," he said, and she nodded, then pulled his hand up, kissed the back of it.

"Quit worrying and go to sleep," she said, her voice soft and a little muzzy. "You got the bad guy. There's nothing else to worry about."

Justin let Alex fall asleep in his arms, and hoped she was right.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** ... and that's it for _Normal Life_. Hope you've enjoyed it!

But of course, I'm still not done with the crew here! Watch my author page and LiveJournal to see what's next!


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